Institute For The Future

More on health from Australia

If you happen to be Down Under this week, Professor Colin McInnes from the University of Wales will be giving what sounds like an interesting lecture on global health and its role in international relations. From the announcement:

 

[He] argues that International Relations has historically prioritized questions of political violence -- war, terrorism and insurgency. But for most people living on this planet, their security is more at risk from poor health than from more traditional security threats. More people die each day from preventable disease than have for the entirety of the conflict in Iraq. Moreover health issues are increasingly international in nature from globalization facilitating the spread of communicable diseases such as SARS and H5N1 to free trade regimes allowing large tobacco companies to penetrate new markets. But health is rarely seen as an issue for International Relations; it is unclear which health issues could be seen as part of a foreign or security policy; and the risks involved in "securitizing" health have created controversy amongst the public health community.