- States and pandemics: protecting the nation
- Infectious diseases are diseases spread by infectious agents (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and
parasites)
- For a long, they were the leading cause of death.
- Threats to the population and the stability of states
- States had to cooperate
- Population security
- Origins: 19th century: social insurance, public health
- Aim: manage regularly occur threats: diseases, poverty, infirmity
- Objects of concern: economic activities, trade, migration, demography
- Knowledge: social sciences: knowledge about collective life (health, poverty, crime,
economics)
- Techniques: Insurance, risk management, public health, urban planning
- Heath and protective states
- Population security is about
- Exercising political sovereignty on populations rather than simply controlling territories
and ensuring the security
- Biopower: Protecting and controlling human lives (vaccines, public health, hygienism) in
exchange of sovereign power
- Health
- Becomes a vital interest: ensuring the good health and well being of the population
- As a source of risks/ threat to vital interest: controlling and preventing diseases from
disrupting social life and trade (regularising risk)
- The birth of international health and cooperation
- First international Sanitary cooperation in 1851
- Goal: facilitating trade while ensuring health security
- Ten more (unsuccessful) conferences until the end of the century
- 1903: adoption of a convention defining quarantine and epidemiological notification
measure
- Security, trade, and pandemics: two approaches in the 19th century
- UK: maintain freedom
- Mainlands Europe wanted to control the spread of the pandemic
- Colonialism and securitisation of health
- Expansion of Western hygienist measures on the colonies
- Health interventions securitise ‘threatening’ colonial environments
- Improving and controlling the lives of ‘natives.’
- Summary
- Health is at the core of the protective state (the imperial power)
- Population security through collective public health measures
- Burgeoning inter-states cooperation to protect common interests (trade, population health
and security), but the dominance of sovereign states throughout the 19 and 20th century
, - Multilateral approaches: the international Health regulations
- The International Health Regulations of 1951 and 1969 → all about preventing
- From state-centric to WHO lead approaches
- Obligation to notify selected infectious diseases
- Maximum security, minimal disruption to circulation of goods
- Weak compliance and effectiveness
- Towards new pandemics: epidemiological transition
-
- Background: globalisation and new pandemics
- Emerging infectious diseases are new diseases that have recently appeared within
a population.
- Caused by globalisation, economic development, and increased interaction between
humans and ‘nature.’
- New global pandemics
- Increased interconnectedness
- Acceleration of movements (trade flows, migration)
- Environmental disruption due to population growth and economic development bring
the boundaries between human, animals, and diseases closer
- Ex: HIV aid, Ebola, Covid
- SARS
-
- Challenges to multilateral approaches
- Reinforced the notion that threats came from other continents
- China’s lack of cooperation
- WHO then gained a central coordination position
- Containment strategy rather successful
- Infectious diseases are diseases spread by infectious agents (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and
parasites)
- For a long, they were the leading cause of death.
- Threats to the population and the stability of states
- States had to cooperate
- Population security
- Origins: 19th century: social insurance, public health
- Aim: manage regularly occur threats: diseases, poverty, infirmity
- Objects of concern: economic activities, trade, migration, demography
- Knowledge: social sciences: knowledge about collective life (health, poverty, crime,
economics)
- Techniques: Insurance, risk management, public health, urban planning
- Heath and protective states
- Population security is about
- Exercising political sovereignty on populations rather than simply controlling territories
and ensuring the security
- Biopower: Protecting and controlling human lives (vaccines, public health, hygienism) in
exchange of sovereign power
- Health
- Becomes a vital interest: ensuring the good health and well being of the population
- As a source of risks/ threat to vital interest: controlling and preventing diseases from
disrupting social life and trade (regularising risk)
- The birth of international health and cooperation
- First international Sanitary cooperation in 1851
- Goal: facilitating trade while ensuring health security
- Ten more (unsuccessful) conferences until the end of the century
- 1903: adoption of a convention defining quarantine and epidemiological notification
measure
- Security, trade, and pandemics: two approaches in the 19th century
- UK: maintain freedom
- Mainlands Europe wanted to control the spread of the pandemic
- Colonialism and securitisation of health
- Expansion of Western hygienist measures on the colonies
- Health interventions securitise ‘threatening’ colonial environments
- Improving and controlling the lives of ‘natives.’
- Summary
- Health is at the core of the protective state (the imperial power)
- Population security through collective public health measures
- Burgeoning inter-states cooperation to protect common interests (trade, population health
and security), but the dominance of sovereign states throughout the 19 and 20th century
, - Multilateral approaches: the international Health regulations
- The International Health Regulations of 1951 and 1969 → all about preventing
- From state-centric to WHO lead approaches
- Obligation to notify selected infectious diseases
- Maximum security, minimal disruption to circulation of goods
- Weak compliance and effectiveness
- Towards new pandemics: epidemiological transition
-
- Background: globalisation and new pandemics
- Emerging infectious diseases are new diseases that have recently appeared within
a population.
- Caused by globalisation, economic development, and increased interaction between
humans and ‘nature.’
- New global pandemics
- Increased interconnectedness
- Acceleration of movements (trade flows, migration)
- Environmental disruption due to population growth and economic development bring
the boundaries between human, animals, and diseases closer
- Ex: HIV aid, Ebola, Covid
- SARS
-
- Challenges to multilateral approaches
- Reinforced the notion that threats came from other continents
- China’s lack of cooperation
- WHO then gained a central coordination position
- Containment strategy rather successful
