The Economic Cost of Terrorism in Iraq: preliminary assessment

Abstract

The research aims to provide a preliminary estimate of the total costs incurred by Iraq from 2003 to the present, including estimating the costs of human losses in cash, which constitutes the first attempt to find a comprehensive estimate of the costs of terrorism and the war on it, and the opportunity costs of it. Although the task is not easy, as it requires a re-evaluation of capital and human assets and calculating their current values, the difficulties extend to calculating the upbringing costs of an Iraqi child until he reaches the age of 20, based on calculating the cost of living over the years. The results provide a preliminary estimate of the expenses incurred by Iraq due to terrorism during the past 19 years since 2003. It is an initial estimate as there are still some other unestimated costs whose estimation will raise the bill for confronting terrorism in Iraq. In total, the costs of terrorism in Iraq amounted to 1.435 trillion dollars, of which the human cost constitutes 65%, and the loss of gross domestic product is 23%. It could have been repurposed for uses that serve the trends of progress and development in the country, increase the welfare of its people, eliminate poverty and deprivation, and rise on the ladder of development progress