Public health practitioners and academics have an obligation to take a lead role in the prevention of war, say the authors of a new report published in the American Journal of Public Health. The report, written by a working group affiliated with the American Public Health Association, notes that civilians account for up to 90 percent of all war deaths. During the twentieth Century, 190 million deaths could be directly and indirectly related to war. “Despite the known health effects of war, the development of competencies to prevent war has received little attention,” the authors say.