Introduction

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter provides an overview of the Karabakh conflict and describes its importance for understanding population health crises that emerge from “New Wars.” The most intense phase of fighting in Karabakh coincided with the region’s first epidemic of Plasmodium vivax malaria since the 1950s. While the malaria epidemic was documented in public health scholarship, the chaotic environment of the conflict meant that very little investigation was done into the re-emergence of this ancestral vector borne disease after decades of successful control. This chapter includes a discussion of the usefulness of combining qualitative historical work with remote sensing data to reconstruct the social and environmental changes that took place in and around the conflict zone. We also discuss the significance of the work and the need for updated models to explain the growing prevalence of “New Wars” and their relationship to global health risks.