Suzanne Hindmarch - Securing Health: HIV and the Limits of Securitization

This book offers a critical inquiry into the framing of health and disease as a security issue.

In particular, the book examines what happens in the United Nations when the ostensibly low politics of global health meet the high politics of security, and when the logic of security comes to shape global health initiatives. It offers a critical re-assessment of efforts in the United Nations system to position HIV as a security threat with the hope that this would attract greater attention and resources for the global HIV response. The book advances securitization theory by presenting a new framework for studying HIV as a policy process, uniting several theoretical strands into a single, powerful model for empirical application. It uses this model to draw attention to important, understudied aspects of HIV securitization, including the role played by discourses about Africa, and the evolution of ideas about HIV and security as actors learned over time. On the basis of this empirically grounded assessment of how securitization works as a theory and a political strategy, the book suggests that securitization is inherently limited, and perhaps dangerous, as a strategy for securing social change.

This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, global health, development studies, and IR in general.

Suzanne Hindmarch is Assistant Professor of political science at the University of New Brunswick, Canada.

Titles in this series include:

Gender and International Security

Feminist perspectives

Reimagining War in the 21st Century

From Clausewitz to network-centric warfare

The New Spatiality of Security

Operational uncertainty and the US military in Iraq

Human Security as Statecraft

Structural conditions, articulations and unintended consequences

US Domestic and International Regimes of Security

Pacifying the globe, securing the homeland

Securitisation and the Iraq War

The rules of engagement in world politics

Ethics and Global Security

A cosmopolitan approach

(In-)Security and the Production of International Relations

Securitisation and the making of foreign affairs in Europe

Food Security Governance

Empowering communities, regulating corporations

Biopolitics, Governmentality and Humanitarianism

Caring for the population in Afghanistan and Belarus

Ethical Security Studies

A new research agenda

Securing Health

HIV and the limits of securitization

Securing Health

HIV and the limits of securitization

Suzanne Hindmarch

First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

2016 Suzanne Hindmarch

The right of Suzanne Hindmarch to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hindmarch, Suzanne, author.
Title: Securing health : HIV and the limits of securitization /
Suzanne Hindmarch.
Other titles: Routledge critical security studies series.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. | Series:
Routledge critical security studies series | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015046763| ISBN 9781138860384 (hbk) |
ISBN 9781315716480 (ebk)
Subjects: | MESH: United Nations. | HIV Infections | Security Measures |
Health Policy | International Agencies
Classification: LCC RA643.86.A35 | NLM WC 503 | DDC 362.19697/92dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046763

ISBN: 978-1-138-86038-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-71648-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

I have been fortunate to benefit from the help of many people while writing this book. First, I would like to thank all those whom I interviewed for generously sharing their time, insights and frank reflections. Although our conclusions about HIV securitization may differ in some cases, I have tremendous respect and appreciation for their work supporting those most affected by HIV, armed conflict and humanitarian emergencies. For their thoughtful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript, I am grateful to Antoinette Handley, Matt Hoffmann, Dickson Eyoh, Nancy Bertoldi and Michael C. Williams. I am also grateful to Stefan Elbe, as well as many discussants at ISA conferences over the years, for feedback and suggestions about how to approach the questions at the core of the book. The comments of two anonymous reviewers were very helpful and improved the manuscript considerably. This book has its roots in my doctoral research and fieldwork, which was financially supported by Ontario Graduate Scholarships. At the other end of this lengthy process, I thank Andrew Humphrys and Hannah Ferguson at Routledge and Hannah Riley at Wearset for seeing this book through to publication. I also thank Sandra Stafford for copyediting and Angela Pietrobon for indexing the manuscript. For their encouragement and support throughout, deepest thanks to my friends, and family including Marilyn and Brian Hindmarch, Kristie Dehid, and Tyler Somers.