The HIV-AIDS national security nexus : a history of risks and benefits
Feldbaume, Harley;
(2009)
The HIV-AIDS national security nexus : a history of risks and benefits.
PhD thesis, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17037/PUBS.00682417
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The links between HIV/AIDS and national security
have
played a major and
under
recognized role in impacting efforts to fight the
pandemic.
To
date,
critical
studies of
the
HIV/AIDS
- national security nexus
have
been limited.
Using
27
semi-structured
interview and extensive literature review, this thesis
creates
the first
global
history
of
the
nexus, from 1985-2007. This long-timeframe analysis allows a novel
examination
of
the
risks and benefits of this politically potent linkage,
an assessment of the
role of
global
health actors in the nexus, and a testing of the
published
conceptual
frameworks that
seek
to explain the relationship between global
health
and
national
security.
This thesis examines the history of the
HIV/AIDS
-
national
security nexus
in three
parts. First, the early and beneficial securitizations of the
epidemic
in
Uganda
and
Thailand are examined. Two other events, the
U. S.
and
USSR intelligence
community
interest in HIV/AIDS and the likely spread of
HIV/AIDS by the
United Nations
peacekeeping mission in Cambodia, illustrate hazards
of the
nexus
and complete this
section. Second, the factors and events that led to the
securitization of
HIV/AIDS
at the
United Nations Security Council and within the
U. S.
are evaluated.
Third, the
consequences of securitization are considered, including the impact
on global
priority
and funding, Security Council Resolution 1308, the
U. S.
President's
Emergency
Plan for
AIDS Relief, and military HIV/AIDS programs.
This thesis finds that where policymakers
have framed
HIV/AIDS
as a
direct threat to
national security and prioritized the disease, clear
benefits in fighting the
epidemic
have
resulted. However the role of global health actors
in these
political events
has
been
limited, and hazards of the nexus include the
classification
of
public
health
data
and
the
divergent interests of the global health and
national security
communities