Michael Spagat Profile picture
An economics professor at RHUL who is interested in war and thinks that truth exists. On the Board of Action on Armed Violence and Every Casualty Counts.
May 28 6 tweets 2 min read
1. "But these numbers matter—first, because of the dignity of those killed or still living"

@gcaw
@everycasualty 2. This is a very nice article, especially the text quoted above.

However, I wish that @gcaw had pointed out that UNOCHA always had a much better alternative to acting as a conveyor belt for the unreliable figures of the Government Media Office.
Sep 19, 2022 13 tweets 3 min read
1. This hardly qualifies as BigTime wrong but I do think that you're a bit harsh on Norman Angell although it does seem plausible that his is the saddest book on your shelf. @delong 2. As you say, on the eve of WW1 Angell argued that war was stupid and that everyone would lose. He sensed a big war in the air and was writing to try to stop it.
Sep 1, 2022 11 tweets 4 min read
1. Something about the new new "Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan" has been nagging at me for the last few days and I couldn't put my finger on it until (weirdly) the death of Gorbachev.

tinyurl.com/24perwhs 2. Way back in another life I used to study the Soviet economy (until it disappeared and I moved on to war). I realised that this plan reminds me of endless failed attempts to reform the Soviet economy, what one scholar called "the treadmill of economic reforms".
Sep 14, 2018 29 tweets 6 min read
1. Here's a new thread on #HurricaneMaria death toll numbers.

#PuertoRicoDeathToll @cblatts @ARGohdes @tanishafazal @AppDemography @KLdivergence @skoczela 2. There seems to be some confusion about what the death estimates are.

First, there is no list of, e.g., 3,000 named individuals killed by the hurricane.
Mar 22, 2018 14 tweets 4 min read
1/N Hi. This is worth a blog post which I'll do when I can clear some time.

But, briefly, I agree with many of the sentiments expressed in the @CharlesPPierce and also in the @nytimes piece that it's based upon. 2/N We should reflect on the impact of the Iraq war, including the human impact and there has been little of this marking the 15th anniversary of the invasion.