Virus alert : security, governmentality, and the AIDS pandemic / Stefan Elbe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Elbe, Stefan, 1975-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Security, International.

National security.

AIDS (Disease)--Political aspects.

AIDS (Disease).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (225 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Bound up with the human cost of HIV/AIDS is the critical issue of its impact on national and international security, yet attempts to assess the pandemic's complex risk fail to recognize the political dangers of construing the disease as a security threat. The securitization of HIV/AIDS not only affects the discussion of the disease in international policy debates, but also transforms the very nature and function of security within global politics.In his analysis of the security implications of HIV/AIDS, Stefan Elbe addresses three concerns: the empirical evidence that justifies framing HIV/AIDS as a security issue, the meaning of the term "security" when used in relation to the disease, and the political consequences of responding to the AIDS pandemic in the language of security. His book exposes the dangers that accompany efforts to manage the global spread of HIV/AIDS through the policy frameworks of national security, human security, and risk management. Beyond developing strategies for mitigating these dangers, Elbe's research reveals that, in construing the AIDS pandemic as a threat, policymakers and international institutions also implicitly seek to integrate current security practices within a particular rationalization of political rule. Elbe identifies this transformation as the "governmentalization" of security and, by drawing on the recently translated work of Michel Foucault, develops a framework for analyzing its key elements and consequences.

Contents:

Viruses, health, and international security

A noble lie? Examining the evidence on AIDS and security

Security in the era of governmentality : AIDS and the rise of health security

National security : sovereignty, medicine and the securitization of AIDS

Human security : discipline, healthy bodies, and the global curing machine

Risk and security : government, military risk groups, and population triage

The power of AIDS : responding to the governmentalization of security.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [177]-199) and index.

ISBN:

9786613285218

9781283285216

1283285215

9780231520058

0231520050

OCLC:

826476473