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Cost of War / Sources
Every number on /cost-of-war/ traces to a single primary source. We tier sources by authority so readers can verify the chain from headline figure to underlying dataset.
All URLs below were accessed . Data year: 2026.
Government, academic, and NGO institutions that publish the raw figures cited throughout this section.
The gold-standard donor database: per-country, per-month allocations of military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since 24 Feb 2022. Source for the donor comparison table on /cost-of-war/ukraine/.
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/ · accessed
Brown University’s ongoing accounting of US post-9/11 war costs (Iraq, Afghanistan, broader War on Terror), inflation-adjusted. Source for the historical-burn comparison on the hub.
https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/ · accessed
Tracks Congressionally-approved Ukraine aid in real time. Bipartisan, frequently cited by both CRS and the Congressional Budget Office.
https://www.crfb.org/blogs/congressionally-approved-ukraine-aid-totals-175-billion · accessed
Nonpartisan policy analysis arm of Congress. CRS reports on Ukraine aid, FMF to Israel, and Iran sanctions form the legal-authority backbone of the cost figures.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/ · accessed
Cross-agency IG portal: tracks disbursements vs appropriations, identifies fraud-risk indicators, publishes quarterly oversight reports.
https://www.ukraineoversight.gov/ · accessed
Primary source for Pentagon budget execution, including PDA drawdowns and USAI (Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative) obligations.
https://comptroller.defense.gov/ · accessed
Joint World Bank / EU / UN / Ukraine RDNA series. Source for the multi-hundred-billion-dollar reconstruction estimate cited on /cost-of-war/ukraine/.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/ukraine · accessed
Think tanks and academic budget models that re-interpret Tier 1 data. Linked alongside Tier 1 figures where their methodologies disagree (notably stockpile valuation).
Center for Strategic and International Studies running cost estimate for Operation Epic Fury, methodology disclosed. Primary input to the IRAN baseline.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/iran-war-cost-estimate-update-113-billion-day-6-165-billion-day-12 · accessed
CFR maintains the canonical cumulative Israel military-aid figure since Oct 2023. Used in the Your-Share allocation fraction.
https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts · accessed
European academic network publishing peer-reviewed working papers on the macroeconomic effects of sanctions, frozen-asset deployment, and reconstruction financing.
https://cepr.org/ · accessed
Independent economists arguing that the economic value of US transfers (~$18.3B) is materially smaller than the replacement-cost figures reported. Linked in /methodology/.
https://econ4ua.org/aid-value/ · accessed
University of Pennsylvania nonpartisan budget analysis. Source for the $47B mid-range Iran cost estimate.
https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/ · accessed
Bilmes co-authored the original "$3 Trillion War" book with Joseph Stiglitz; her ongoing research informs how to value future veteran-care liabilities — the largest hidden line item in long-run war accounting.
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/linda-bilmes · accessed
Wire services and major papers used to corroborate breaking events; never the sole source for a numerical claim on this site.
Wire-service reporting on appropriations bills, strike counts, and ceasefire status. Used as a confirmation layer when Tier 1 / Tier 2 sources publish on a lag.
https://www.reuters.com/ · accessed
Useful cross-regional perspective on Middle East coverage; cited for ceasefire-mediation reporting and Gulf-state response framing.
https://www.aljazeera.com/ · accessed
US-domestic political reporting on aid debates, Pentagon comptroller disclosures, and FOIA-released cost data.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/ · accessed
Public radio aggregation, useful for interview material with policymakers and Pentagon spokespeople.
https://www.npr.org/ · accessed
If a number on this site disagrees with the cited Tier 1 source, write to [email protected]. We correct on the next deploy and note the change in the commit log. The full methodology is documented at /cost-of-war/methodology/.
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Live counter, Sankey, per-country comparison.
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Strike inventory, cost-exchange ratio, Hormuz impact.
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