ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we turn to the question of the many and often complex relationships between geopolitics, security and health. We indicated such relationships, as you will remember, in our diagrammatic model of health determinants (Figure 3.1). The linkages between health and these spheres are important and operate in both directions: geopolitics and security have effects on health; and health, in turn, has significance for geopolitics and security. Also, in the discussion we extend the notion of security beyond the traditional international and national territorial conceptualizations to encompass individual human security, too. We are aligning ourselves in this regard with the United Nations Development Programme’s 1994 Human Development Report’s (p. 23) notions of ‘safety from such chronic threats as hunger, disease and repression . . . [and] protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life’. We begin with a consideration of one of the most important features in the globalizing world – population movements which can stem from a wide range of reasons and can have enormous implications for long-and short-term health status of individuals, communities and even nations.
