Abstract
Since the initial deliberations in 1946 regarding the need for a new universal health organization, a strong correlation has existed between public health and international security. Having said this, the WHO secretariat’s explicit adoption of security-related concepts and language to reframe its public health mandate is a fairly recent phenomenon that only emerged from 2001 onwards. Moreover, the WHO did not lead the charge to securitize public health — this was accomplished by a host of other actors. Admittedly, one of the WHO’s proximal principals — the United States — was a key player in advocating this new way of viewing acute, fast-moving health issues (Smith III 2014), but the WHO secretariat itself lagged well behind, in some quarters even initially staunchly resisting the push to reframe public health in security terms. It is in this regard that the events of the mid-1990s, both within and external to the WHO, marked a distinct turning point. The WHO secretariat’s advancement of the phrase ‘global health security’ in its 2001 report to member states signalled its firm embrace of this new worldview, and for more than a decade the WHO has been on the path of re-casting its public health mandate in a security frame.
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© 2015 Adam Kamradt-Scott
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Kamradt-Scott, A. (2015). Global Health Security and Its Discontents. In: Managing Global Health Security. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137520166_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137520166_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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