Infectious Disease, Governance, and Security

Abstract

Contagion and Chaos: Disease, Ecology, and National Security in the Era of Globalization. By T. Price-Smith Andrew. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009. 296 pp., $48 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0-262-16248-7); $24 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-262-66203-1). There is no shortage of historical literature documenting the significant and pervasive effects of infectious disease (Zinsser 1935; McNeill 1989; Watts 1997; Hays 1998; Crosby 2003). As Thucydides (1980) vividly described in the History of the Peloponnesian War , disease, war and poor governance were intertwined and mutually reinforcing. Rulers and policy makers alike were keenly aware of the implications of population health on state power and military readiness, which led to the establishment of Registration in France in 1802 and the institution of two Contagious Disease Acts in Great Britain in 1864. Yet in the Cold War era, infectious disease was generally considered a “low politics” issue in international relations (IR) or security studies. It was not until the latter half of the 1990s that some political scientists began their inquiries of the impact of disease on development, governance, and security. Authored also by Price-Smith, The Health of Nations (2001) provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for the relationship between disease and state capacity, thereby representing the first systematic effort toward establishing a health security paradigm. An extension of previous work, Price-Smith's new book features significant revisions to the original model: it …