EPS Trustee Bilmes calculates cost of war in Gaza and broader Middle East conflicts
EPS Trustee Linda Bilmes is a founders and contributor to the Costs of War project (COW) run out of Brown University. COW has released two papers related to the 1-year anniversary of the October 7th attach on Israel. Bilmes co-authored a paper tracking costs of US military actions in the Israel/Gaza/wider region, which was released this week through the associated press: https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-us-military-spending.
Bilmes estimates that the US has incurred roughly $4.8 billion related to its broader actions in the region, in particular in response to the Houthis, where the US has taken on the significant task of protecting maritime trade. The Houthis have managed to drive up US costs asymmetrically, by using inexpensive Iranian-made weapons which the US has responded to with expensive US-made weapons. Separately, Bilmes estimates conservatively that the maritime trade has incurred $2.1 billion in costs (related to higher insurance, and ships diverted from Suez to the Cape of Good Hope) based on shipping records since last November. Bilmes section of the report is available here. The braoder reports are at the links below:
They have since been covered in TIME, Newsweek, Washington Post, Boston Globe, ABC News, WPRI, South China Morning Post, Times of Israel, Middle East Eye, Newsmax, The Week, Irish Independent, PBS News, Marketplace, Newsweek, WVIA, The Fiscal Times, Common Dreams, Boston Herald, News Nation, Patch, TPM, Epoch Times, Truthout, and The Hill.