Infectious Diseases and Securitization: WHO's Dilemma
25 May 2011-Biosecurity and Bioterrorism-biodefense Strategy Practice and Science (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot Street, 3rd Floor New Rochelle, NY 10801 USA)-Vol. 9, Iss: 2, pp 181-187
TL;DR: While WHO has tended to securitize infectious diseases since 2000, it has encountered a dilemma in the process because of the inherent asymmetry of interest between developed and developing countries.
Abstract: The threat posed by infectious diseases has been increasingly framed as a security issue. The UN Security Council's Resolution 1308, which designated HIV/AIDS as a threat to international security, evidenced the securitization process. Using securitization theory as a theoretical tool, this article explores the securitization of infectious diseases in the World Health Organization (WHO). While WHO has tended to securitize infectious diseases since 2000, it has encountered a dilemma in the process because of the inherent asymmetry of interest between developed and developing countries. The act of securitization in WHO currently remains mostly a rhetorical device, since WHO's norms emblematic of securitization have not been backed by operational measures for verification or enforcement due to these asymmetric interests.
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TL;DR: In this article, the joint ESRC-DFIDFID funding scheme was used to support the work of the authors under the contract RES-167-25-0167.
Abstract: This research was funded under the joint ESRC-DFID funding scheme, contract RES-167-25-0167.
14 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jul 2014
TL;DR: Thesis Outline: A Discussion of the Foundations of Thesis Formation and its Applications to Theoretical Statistics.
Abstract: ............................................................................................................................................ 2 List of Tables and Figures .................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter One: Introduction and Thesis Outline .................................................................................... 5 1.
12 citations
Cites background from "Infectious Diseases and Securitizat..."
...The discussion of the securitization of aspects of public health is also relevant to understanding dual-use governance activities Kelle 2007, Davies 2008, Jin and Karackattu 2011 and Cook 2010....
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TL;DR: The authors explores the potential for new biotechnologically enabled weapons to compete with nuclear weapons in the context of strategic stability and assesses how such new technologies may affect a strategic stability.
Abstract: This article explores the potential for new biotechnologically enabled weapons to compete with nuclear weapons in the context of strategic stability, assesses how such new technologies may affect a...
6 citations
TL;DR: The authors analyzed how Chinese actors have responded to the threat in the public and animal health sectors as well as the domestic and international implications of these responses and argued that the securitization of AMR in China is currently more concerned with domestic policy and resource competition than with addressing the existential health threat.
Abstract: The global spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an existential threat to humanity, one that has generated a macrosecuritizing response by states and international organizations. Since the turn of the century, China has been a source of numerous infectious disease outbreaks. It is also the origin of the MCR-1 gene that confers resistance to colistin, a ‘last line’ antibiotic deployed against multidrug resistant infections. With the largest population and its status as a major supplier of produce, evaluating Chinese responses to AMR is critical to understanding the efficacy of the global response. Combining both knowledge of Chinese politics and health security, this paper analyses how Chinese actors have responded to the threat in the public and animal health sectors as well as the domestic and international implications of these responses. Based on interviews with key Chinese and international officials, scientists, and public health specialists as well as farmers and consumers, we argue that the securitization of AMR in China is currently more concerned with domestic policy and resource competition than with addressing the existential health threat. Without a greater alignment of AMR strategies within China, macrosecuritizing efforts to address the threat globally cannot succeed.
4 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: This article conducted a discourse analysis of speech acts occurring at different levels of the global community in relation to the outbreak and found that the discourse employed by global governance identified the referent object nearly exclusively at the state-level.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the securitization of communicable disease in the case of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa 2014. Applying the Copenhagen School’s theory of securitization, this thesis conducted a discourse analysis of speech acts occurring at different levels of the global community in relation to the outbreak. The focus lay on two major events, namely the UN Security Council meeting on 18 September 2014 and the UN high-level meeting on Ebola a week later. Investigating to what extent the securitizing discourse apparent in Resolution 2177 which identified Ebola as a “threat to international peace and security” was uphold and justified by the speakers at these events, this study determined that Ebola virus disease has been “successfully” securitized on all levels of global governance. Despite the incredible amount of human suffering which the Ebola outbreak provoked in West Africa, the discourse employed by global governance identified the referent object nearly exclusively at the state-level. Further research is suggested in the concluding parts of this thesis that can build upon the findings of this study.
2 citations
Cites background or methods from "Infectious Diseases and Securitizat..."
...Furthermore, this agenda has been claimed to be dominated by the security interests of the West (McInnes, 2008; Jin & Karackattu, 2011), despite the fact that the majority of deaths from preventable illnesses occur in the poor countries outside the West (WHO, 2015d)....
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...With respect to the securitization of international public health, Kelle (2007), and Jin and Karackattu (2011) identify WHO as a securitizing actor, but do not comment upon how WHO acts as such....
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...The public health gap between the developing and developed countries is compared to “a kind of ‘structural violence’” (Jin & Karackattu 2011:186; Farmer 1997) and the fact that the developed countries are dominating the discourse on securitization is 17 seen as a reason for why developing countries…...
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...In this context, Jin and Karackattu (2011) point to an inherent dilemma that the WHO as a securitizing actor faces in securitizing infectious diseases which is caused by the fact that “securitization is not a win-win strategy in its current manifestation” (p.186) due to conflicting interests…...
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...The exception has been applied to WHO in order to have a wider range of data from which to identify the nature of the organization’s securitizing moves as informed by previous research (Kelle, 2007;Jin & Karackattu, 2011;Hanrieder & Kreuder-Sonnen, 2014)....
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TL;DR: Social forces atwork there havealsostructuredriskformostformsof extremesuffering, fromhungertotortureandrape, and,indeed, mostotherinfectiousandparasiticdiseases.
Abstract: veryone knows that suffering exists. The question is howtodefineit.Giventhateachperson’spainhasa degreeofrealityforhimorherthatthepainofothers cansurelyneverapproach,iswidespreadagreementonthesub jectpossible?Almostallofuswouldagreethatprematureand painfulillness,torture,andrapeconstituteextremesuffering. Mostwouldalsoagreethatinsidiousassaultsondignity,suchas institutionalizedracismandsexism,alsocausegreatandunjust injury. Givenourconsensusonsomeofthemoreconspicuousforms ofsuffering,anumberofcorollaryquestionscometothefore. Canweidentifythosemostatriskofgreatsuffering?Among those whose suffering is not mortal, is it possible to identify thosemostlikelytosustainpermanentanddisablingdamage? Arecertain“event”assaults,suchastortureorrape,morelikely toleadtolatesequelaethanaresustainedandinsidioussuffer ing,suchasthepainbornofdeeppovertyorofracism?Under thislatterrubric,arecertainformsofdiscriminationdemonstra blymorenoxiousthanothers? Anthropologistswhotaketheseasresearchquestionsstudy bothindividualexperienceandthelargersocialmatrixinwhich it is embedded in order to see how various large-scale social forcescometobetranslatedintopersonaldistressanddisease. Bywhatmechanismsdosocialforcesrangingfrompovertyto racismbecomeembodied asindividualexperience?Thishasbeen thefocusofmostofmyownresearchinHaiti,wherepolitical andeconomicforceshavestructuredriskforAIDS,tuberculosis, and,indeed,mostotherinfectiousandparasiticdiseases.Social forcesatworktherehavealsostructuredriskformostformsof extremesuffering,fromhungertotortureandrape.
657 citations
01 Jan 1983
TL;DR: The United Nations Security Council as mentioned in this paper is composed of 15 member states of the United Nations and consists of five permanent members: China, France, Italy, United Kingdom, United States, and the Soviet Union.
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339 citations