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Should outside nations or the UN become involved in civil wars or should people be left to do their own fighting? Civil War has great repercussions, some more obvious than others. The time old saying “let them fight it out amongst themselves” has been exhausted, due to the inability of humankind to blatantly ignore the Social & Economic costs of civil conflict. Civil War creates many adverse consequences, of which are suffered not only by the active combatants but also by civilians. Many of these consequences accumulate long after the war is over. This essay shall discuss the adverse economic & social consequences of Civil War, the repercussions that may occur without the involvement of United Nations and outside nations, and lastly the effects Civil War has had on a handful countries (both socially & economically). Firstly, Civil war is an economic catastrophe for the country at conflict. During a civil war a society diverts some of its resources from productive activities such as food production to destruction (fighting the war). With the shift in resource production focused on destruction, it creates a subsequent loss. The first loss is governments increase their military expenditure and this directly reduces economic growth. During civil war governments spend almost double their GDP on the military resources. This is likely to cause a decrease in other public expenditures such as infrastructure and health. The main economic losses from civil war arise from the direct destruction of infrastructure. During the war rebel forces, target physical infrastructure as a part of their strategy. The main targets are the enemy’s communication and support lines, such as telecommunications, airports, ports, roads and bridges. In addition to this strategic destruction of key infrastructure, rebels and government soldiers loot and destroy housing, schools and health facilities. Where possible the United Nations intervenes before a conflict can escalate, to prevent destruction of infrastructure. But occasionally it is hard to gauge the exact seriousness of a situation thus, delaying the initial deployment of UN Peace Keeping Missions. An example is Mozambique. About 40% of immobile capital in the agricultural, communications and administrative sector was destroyed. The pre-war transport system had been a large foreign income earner as goods were transported from and to the neighboring states of Malawi, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and South Africa.
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