As the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says: “In war, children suffer the most.”

As I write, children are dying and losing loved ones every single day in multiple locations around the world, including Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Russia, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Myanmar, Yemen, Congo, and numerous other countries. These children are suffering in ways that are quite simply horrific and completely incompatible with normal development.

In fact, globally, one in four children, or more than 400 million, live in a country affected by armed conflict, terrorism, or disaster.1 And armed conflict can last throughout a child’s entire life, such as in Liberia where civil war caused widespread trauma from 1989 to 2004.2

The effects of war are innumerable. They extend far beyond the trauma that is experienced by the loss of loved ones or witnessing or being the victim of violence. In wartime, children, teens, and adults may all experience a brutal shattering of parts of their inner worlds. Their mental functioning is assaulted by destructive forces.3

Moreover, they experience all the secondary losses of war including the loss of home and community due to fighting and bombardment. These include losses embedded in........

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