Uploaded June 2022 | Updated September 2026, 18 hours ago
Over the past decade, global health threats such as pandemics have been increasingly framed as national security threats due to their perceived potential to exacerbate conflict, increase poverty and terrorism, and ability to inspire fear. Such elements of securitization can now be viewed as permanent features of public health governance. While the articulation of health issues as global threats has led to an increase in global health financing, it has also diverted funds from fundamental public health concerns - such as widely prevalent chronic diseases - towards infectious diseases such as Ebola and Covid-19. This panel approaches health security beyond epidemics from two novel perspectives: bioethics and humanitarianism. Using expert qualitative interviews, we explore the ethical implications of the increasing securitization of health and its effects on medical humanitarian action in the middle East.
Over the past decade, global health threats such as pandemics have been increasingly framed as national security threats due to their perceived potential to exacerbate conflict, increase poverty and terrorism, and ability to inspire fear. Such elements of securitization can now be viewed as permanent features of public health governance. While the articulation of health issues as global threats has led to an increase in global health financing, it has also diverted funds from fundamental public health concerns - such as widely prevalent chronic diseases - towards infectious diseases such as Ebola and Covid-19. This panel approaches health security beyond epidemics from two novel perspectives: bioethics and humanitarianism. Using expert qualitative interviews, we explore the ethical implications of the increasing securitization of health and its effects on medical humanitarian action in the middle East.
