Author Description

This new handbook presents an overview of cutting-edge research in the growing field of global health security. Over the past decade, the study of global health has become an increasingly mainstream part of the international relations agenda. Over the same period, scholars working in public health have begun to investigate the politics of global public health in more depth than ever before. The coming together of these two scholarly communities has resulted in the creation of a vibrant, cross-disciplinary and rapidly-growing field of research. One of the major themes apparent in this scholarly literature has been an examination of the linkages between security and health. This has been an area of lively debate, with discussions ongoing over the appropriate conceptualisation of health security; which (if any) health issues should be treated as security threats; what should be done to address health security threats; and the positive and negative consequences of securitizing health. In raising these questions, the academic literature has been critically reflecting on an emergent policy discourse in which states and other actors have increasingly been discussing and addressing selected health issues in security terms. Again, this has come from both sides of the health/security divide: security policy communities have added health (especially infectious disease threats) to their remits; and the public health community has attempted to leverage securitization in order to gain increased attention and resources for health issues. The health security field is, then, a timely and dynamic one in both academic and policy terms - an area of significant contemporary interest for scholars, students and policy-makers alike. This handbook would be the first work comprehensively to address the health security agenda. Bringing together the leading experts and commentators on health security issues from across the world, the volume comprises original and cutting-edge essays addressing.