HIV/AIDS as a security threat

Disease and insecurity co-exist in a vicious circle. Throughout human history epidemics have had destructive impacts on the capacities of individuals, families, and communities to secure and protect their livelihoods. Wars and armed conflicts have often resulted in humanitarian crises which increase the risk of exposure to infectious diseases and other health hazards. The emergence of HIV/AIDS and other potentially deadly infectious diseases in recent years, and the reality of how easily and quickly these can spread across borders, have given rise to heightened concern within the United Nations and the wider international community about the threat posed by global epidemics to national and international security. This chapter looks at HIV/AIDS as a security threat in terms of

the direct impact on human well-being and safety and, beyond that, the implications for state security and international peace and stability. The conceptual framework used for investigating HIV/AIDS as a security threat therefore depicts the connection between a global infectious disease and insecurity at both the personal and state level. Specifically, it addresses the impact of the epidemic both from the standpoint of a humanitarian crisis that impinges on personal safety and with reference to causal links between the epidemic and state-centric security concerns such as political instability, conflicts and civil wars, and regional and international insecurity. The basic hypothesis is that the extremely high rate of mortality identified with HIV/AIDS diminishes human capacity, with serious social and economic consequences which, in turn, could affect political stability and threaten national and international security.

Human security embraces more than the effects of the absence of conflict on human lives and livelihoods.1 It encompasses the protection

of rights and freedom from disease, poverty and deprivation, which was dealt with in the previous chapter, and includes the promotion of long-term and sustainable human development. In the specific context of HIV/AIDS, the most direct impact of the disease on human security is the unnecessary loss of life due to the absence of or inadequate treatment and care. This reflects a deficit in personal security requirements of those at risk to HIV infection, and a needs gap for those who require access to essential drugs for ARV therapy. The threat posed to human security by HIV/AIDS is greatest usually in the resource-poor developing countries which do not have the means and know-how to control the spread of the epidemic and to provide adequate treatment and care for those in need. This is in contrast to the rich industrialized countries which have the resources, infrastructure, and knowledge to guarantee HIV/AIDS prevention and provide life-prolonging treatment to those in need. The human security implications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic are

immense. According to UNAIDS, over 65 million people have been infected with HIV and about 25 million have died from AIDS-related illnesses so far.2 The majority of these infections and deaths have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region that has some of the poorest countries in the world and where AIDS is now a major cause of death. Millions of Africans are infected with HIV each year, millions have died from the AIDS-related illnesses, and millions more are likely to die in the absence of adequate treatment and care. The scale of the humanitarian tragedy associated with HIV/AIDS and the potential threat to personal safety and welfare prompted one specialist on global security issues to describe the HIV/AIDS pandemic as “a humanitarian and human security issue of almost unimaginable magnitude, representing one of the most pervasive challenges to human well-being and survival in many parts of the world.”3 With no known cure for AIDS, and no successful vaccine againstHIV infection as yet, many believe that HIV/AIDS could turn out to be one of the worst humanitarian tragedies and gravest human security problems of our time, if the spread of this epidemic is not brought under control.4