ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the new geopolitics of disease. In conventional Northern perspective the main outlines of the present geopolitical reality appear clear. As Elbe notes in the case of HIV/AIDS, contemporary strategic concern about disease proceeds on two levels: its potential role in directly altering military balances and precipitating conflicts, and its longer-term indirect role in undermining the social, economic and political fabric of societies, exacerbating existing problems and creating conditions where instability becomes more likely. Several mechanisms have been postulated by which HIV/AIDS may undermine security. The negative implications of HIV/AIDS for the economy, social cohesion and political institutions are considered to be more severe than other infectious diseases because it affects middle classes and elites as well as the poor. The SARS epidemic is seminal for the geopolitics of disease because, in David Fidler's words, 'China acted Westphalian in a post-Westphalian world'.
