Understanding global security - Peter Hough

HEALTH THREATS TO SECURITY
Global environmental change
Whether the cause is man-made or natural, it is beyond dispute that average
temperatures on earth have risen over recent decades and this has had and will
continue to have a considerable bearing on the spread of certain diseases. Tropical
diseases, associated with insect vectors native to equatorial areas, are becoming
increasingly common in areas with traditionally more temperate climes. The warmer
the weather the more readily mosquitoes breed and bite, and malaria and other
diseases have recently become a health threat in countries outside the insects’ usual
habitat. The USA, for example, has been hit by West Nile virus as far north as New
York every summer since 1999.
The erosion of the ozone layer is believed to be a significant factor in the rise
of cases of skin cancer (malignant melanoma) over recent years. Increased levels of
ultraviolet radiation resulting from ozone deletion appear to be a major explanation
for why the disease should have risen in prevalence in the USA by 1800 per cent from
1930 to the end of the century (the increased popularity of sun-bathing is another
factor) (UNEP 2002b: Chapter 3, p. 4).
‘Failed states’
As with the growth of other causes of human insecurity, the increased number of
politically chaotic states, associated with the contemporary age, has exacerbated
the dangers posed by disease. Political upheaval in Sub Saharan African states such
as Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo has contributed to poverty
and the limited development of public health and sanitation provision. Even in states
less anarchic and less naturally prone to disease epidemics than Sub-Saharan Africa,
health threats to security have emerged in line with political upheaval. One of the
side-effects of Russia’s difficult process of political, social and economic transition
since the fall of Communist rule in 1991 has been the rise of vaccine-preventable
diseases like tuberculosis and diphtheria, largely attributed to poverty and cuts in
health expenditure. Failed states also, of course, encourage migration and the global
spread of disease in addition to localized resurgences.
Global market forces
Economic globalization has some negative implications for human health beyond
the side-effects of creating a single market for food. The profits from trade and
tourism have become such a major element of the state exchequer that governments
have been known to downplay or deny disease outbreaks for fear of the economic
costs of doing so. Pirages and Runci note that a pneumonia outbreak in India in 1996
was not reported to the WHO as is customary for these sorts of events (Pirages and
Runci 2000: 190). This decision was, doubtless, influenced by the estimated loss of
$1.7 billion to the country as a result of a well-publicized plague epidemic two years
earlier (Heymann 2001: 12). This may also partially explain the eccentric stance
of South African President Mbeki in responding to the chronic threat of AIDS in his
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