How is health a security issue? Politics, responses and issues

Abstract

In the closing decade of the 20th century the myriad challenges posed by infectious disease in a globalized environment began to be re-conceptualized as threats to national and human security. The most widely applied model for identifying and responding to such threats is securitization theory, as proposed by the Copenhagen School. Although its analytical framework is generally accepted, its utility remains contested; especially in non-European and non-state settings. The papers in this special edition have several aims: (1) to analyse ways by which Asian states and international organizations have identified health challenges as security threats, (2) to draw upon the securitization model as a way of understanding the full extent to which these states and international organizations have responded to the health threat, and (3) to identify areas where the theory might be strengthened so as to provide greater analytical clarity in areas of health security. This paper acts as a broad introduction to a set of papers on 'Unhealthy governance' and explores some of the key findings from the subsequent papers.

The Effect of Ideology on Attitudes toward GM Food Safety among Chinese Internet Users

“…show that both general ideology and the three ideological dimensions have a significant influence on attitudes to GM food safety. These results are in line with previous studies, which state that scientific problems are not solely about science, but are entangled with ideological issues [58,59]. Our findings show that respondents characterized as having a right-wing ideology, in general, tended to regard GM food as safe, compared with those with a left-wing ideology.…”

Elective surgery in times of COVID-19: A two-centre analysis of postponed operations and disease-related morbidity and mortality

“…This fact underlines the brought impact epidemics of infectious diseases bear for the provision of surgical care. More and more frequently, infectious diseases become a matter of security [5][6][7]. In case of COVID-19, the declaration of PHEIC marked the diseases as a massive international security risk.…”

COVID-19 and privacy in the European Union: A legal perspective on contact tracing

“…Using security tools such as critical infrastructure preparedness and other techniques for pandemic preparedness strategies may lead to greater capacities to deal with the effects of pandemics, based on the notion that "desperate times call for desperate measures" (Collier & Lakoff, 2008;Lo Yuk-ping & Thomas, 2010). However, reframing health as a security threat may have adverse effects for the protection of fundamental rights in health emergencies: The language of security can legitimate stricter measures by public authorities (Fidler, 2004;Upshur, 2005).…”