War & Health is charged with examining the connection between armed conflict and health. The majority of the time this takes the form of quantitative analysis of the available data. Diseases and wars reduced to values on a spreadsheet. I believe in this approach. However, far too common, I think, researchers forget that the observations we conduct in our statistical symphonies are all events of complexity and often, devastation.
The data is clear, IED attacks in Iraq are declining. The slope is negative. But, these are not mere points on a scatterplots, or observations in our regressions. They are tragedies of the human condition. Each deadly attack, each “N”, is a family’s tragedy.
And, in the end, the accuracy of our findings is not for conference papers or publications, but to give their tragedies some meaning.
Journalist David Beriain offers a good reminder that the N’s in the IED data are always more than numbers:
We would do well to keep that in mind.
Christopher Albon is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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I’m glad you said this. We need the reminder.
Thanks Alanna. This was a (perhaps) maudlin take on an issue that has been on my mind. I am hoping to write up something a little more solid in the near future.
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