Volume I, Issue 1: Spring 2007
– APRIL 1, 2007(EDIT POST)
POSTED IN: COMPLETE ISSUES, SPRING 2007
Featured Theme: Health and Governance
Architecture amidst Anarchy: Global Health’s Quest for Governance
David P.
Fidler
Vicious Circle: HIV/AIDS, State Capacity, and National Security: Lessons from
Zimbabwe, 1990-2005
Andrew T. Price-Smith
Bureaucratizing Epidemics: The Challenge of Institutional Bias in the United
States and Brazil” for Consistency Purpose
Eduardo J. Gómez
Invited Article
The Politics of Disease: Governance and Emerging Infections
Elizabeth M.
Prescott
Research Article
Ideology’s Role in AIDS Policies in Uganda and South Africa
Jeremy Youde
Combating a Collective Threat: Prospects for Sino-American Cooperation
Against Avian Influenza
Andrew Erickson
Comments and Remarks
XDR Tuberculosis, the New International Health Regulations, and Human
Rights
Philippe Calain and David P. Fidler
HTML:
<strong>Featured Theme: Health and Governance</strong>
<a title="Architecture amidst Anarchy: Global Health’s Quest for Governance"
href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/2007/04/01/architecture-amidst-anarchy-globalhealth%e2%80%99s-quest-for-governance/">Architecture amidst Anarchy: Global
Health’s Quest for Governance</a>
David P. Fidler
<a title="Vicious Circle—HIV/AIDS, State Capacity, and National Security: Lessons
from Zimbabwe, 1990-2005" href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/2007/04/01/viciouscircle%e2%80%94hivaids-state-capacity-and-national-security-lessons-fromzimbabwe-1990-2005/">Vicious Circle: HIV/AIDS, State Capacity, and National
Security: Lessons from Zimbabwe, 1990-2005</a>
Andrew T. Price-Smith
<a title="Bureaucratizing Epidemics: The Challenge of Institutional Bias in the
United States and Brazil"
href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/2007/04/01/bureaucratizing-epidemics-thechallenge-of-institutional-bias-in-the-united-states-and-brazil/">Bureaucratizing
Epidemics: The Challenge of Institutional Bias in the United States and Brazil" for
Consistency Purpose</a>
Eduardo J. Gómez
&nbsp;
<strong>Invited Article</strong>
<a title="The Politics of Disease: Governance and Emerging Infections"
href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/2007/04/01/the-politics-of-disease-governanceand-emerging-infections/">The Politics of Disease: Governance and Emerging
Infections</a>
Elizabeth M. Prescott
&nbsp;
<strong>Research Article</strong>
<a title="Ideology’s Role in AIDS Policies in Uganda and South Africa"
href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/2007/04/01/ideology%e2%80%99s-role-in-aidspolicies-in-uganda-and-south-africa/">Ideology’s Role in AIDS Policies in Uganda
and South Africa</a>
Jeremy Youde
<a title="Combating a Collective Threat: Prospects for Sino-American Cooperation
Against Avian Influenza" href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/2007/04/01/combatinga-collective-threat-prospects-for-sino-american-cooperation-against-avianinfluenza/">Combating a Collective Threat: Prospects for Sino-American
Cooperation Against Avian Influenza</a>
Andrew Erickson
&nbsp;
<strong>Comments and Remarks</strong>
<a title="XDR Tuberculosis, the New International Health Regulations, and Human
Rights" href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/2007/04/01/xdr-tuberculosis-the-newinternational-health-regulations-and-human-rights/">XDR Tuberculosis, the New
International Health Regulations, and Human Rights</a>
Philippe Calain and David P. Fidler
Architecture amidst Anarchy: Global Health’s Quest for Governance
<a href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/files/2011/10/Fidler_Architecture-amidstAnarchy-Global-Health’s-Quest-for-Governance_Spring2007.pdf"><strong>Architecture amidst Anarchy: Global Health’s Quest for
Governance</strong></a>
David P. Fidler
Increased concern about global health has focused attention on governance
questions, and calls for new governance architecture for global health have
appeared. This article examines the growing demand for such architecture and
argues that the architecture metaphor is inapt for understanding the challenges
global health faces. In addition to traditional problems experienced in coordinating
State behavior, global health governance faces a new problem, what I call “opensource anarchy.” The dynamics of open-source anarchy are such that States and
non-State actors resist governance reforms that would restrict their freedom of
action. In this context, what is emerging is not governance architecture but a
normative “source code” that States, international organizations, and non-State
actors apply in addressing global health problems. The source code’s application
reveals deficiencies in national public health governance capabilities, deficiencies
that are difficult to address in conditions of open-source anarchy. Governance
initiatives on global health are, therefore, rendered vulnerable.
Vicious Circle—HIV/AIDS, State Capacity, and National Security:
Lessons from Zimbabwe, 1990-2005
<a href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/files/2011/10/Price-Smith_Vicious-Circle—
HIV-AIDS-State-Capacity-and-National-Security-Lessons-from-Zimbabwe-19902005_Spring-2007.pdf"><strong>Vicious Circle—HIV/AIDS, State Capacity, and
National Security: Lessons from Zimbabwe, 1990-2005</strong></a>
Andrew T. Price-Smith
Recent macro level empirical analyses have revealed a complex relationship
between health and governance. Yet, most micro level studies fail to assess the
effects of HIV/AIDS induced morbidity and mortality as they interact across the
domains of demography, economic and governance at the domestic level of analysis.
This consilient case study illustrates the manner in which HIV/AIDS generates
negative pressures that destabilize Zimbabwean society, its economy, and its
structures of governance. The article asserts that HIV/AIDS can act as a stressor
upon seriously affected societies, and may over time generate or exacerbate macrolevel destabilization.
Bureaucratizing Epidemics: The Challenge of Institutional Bias in
the United States and Brazil” for Consistency Purpose
<a href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/files/2011/10/Gomez_BureaucratizingEpidemics-The-Challenge-of-Institutional-Bias-in-the-United-States-andBrazil_Spring-2007.pdf"><strong>Bureaucratizing Epidemics: The Challenge of
Institutional Bias in the United States and Brazil</strong></a>
Eduardo J. Gómez
This paper examines the politics of government response to health epidemics in the
United States and Brazil. Using a global structural approach, it explains why, despite
their various similarities, Brazil has been a bit better at responding to both sexually
transmitted (STDs), while the U.S. has been better at responding to non-STDs, such
as the specter of avian flu and bioterrorism. The paper closes with a discussion of
why democracies are biased in the types of epidemics they respond to and what this
means for democratic equality and commitment to its citizenry.
The Politics of Disease: Governance and Emerging Infections
<a href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/files/2011/10/Prescott_The-Politics-of-DiseaseGovernance-and-Emerging-Infections_Spring-2007.pdf"><strong>The Politics of
Disease: Governance and Emerging Infections</strong></a>
Elizabeth M. Prescott
Infectious disease outbreaks demand a timely and proportional response. The
responsibility for this action falls to those with the power to harness the processes
and systems by which a society operates in order to effect the changes necessary to
limit transmission of an illness. Controlling emerging and reemerging infectious
diseases can require extreme actions and coordination between many national and
international actors making the ability to respond a reflection of the capacity of a
governing system. In the absence of good governance, opportunities are created for
disease to emerge, while at the same time, an aggressive response is often hindered.
Failures in governance in the face of infectious disease outbreaks can result in
challenges to social cohesion, economic performance and political legitimacy.
Overall, the need for coordination of actions despite a high degree of uncertainty
and high costs makes curtailing infectious disease a challenge in the absence of good
governance.
Ideology’s Role in AIDS Policies in Uganda and South Africa
<a href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/files/2011/10/Youde_Ideology’s-Role-in-AIDSPolicies-in-Uganda-and-South-Africa_Spring-2007.pdf"><strong>Ideology’s Role in
AIDS Policies in Uganda and South Africa</strong></a>
Jeremy Youde
While analysts have focused largely on the role of political will to explain a
government’s willingness to implement effective AIDS policies, little research has
explored the origins of that political will. I argue that, through a consideration of the
ideological outlook of government officials, we can develop a more nuanced
understanding of political will and the desire to implement certain types of policies.
To demonstrate the importance of ideology, I examine two cases of national AIDS
policies: Uganda, widely hailed for its pro-active response to the AIDS epidemic, and
South Africa, largely vilified for its courting of AIDS dissidents. This research shows
the importance of going beyond simple examinations of state capacity to reflect the
underlying belief structures that make possible (or impossible) certain policy
actions.
Combating a Collective Threat: Prospects for Sino-American Cooperation
Against Avian Influenza
<a href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/files/2011/10/Erickson_Combating-a-TrulyCollective-Threat-Sino-American-Military-Cooperation-against-AvianInfluenza_Spring-2007.pdf"><strong>Combating a Collective Threat: Prospects for
Sino-American Cooperation Against Avian Influenza</strong></a>
Andrew Erickson
This essay seeks to increase awareness among Western scholars, analysts, and
policy makers concerning both the potential danger posed by an outbreak of avian
influenza, and Sino-American efforts thus far to militate against such a contingency.
Given the importance of cooperation between countries in combating a pandemic,
the essay also explores the challenges and opportunities inherent in Sino-American
cooperation to combat avian influenza. This may be a particularly productive area of
cooperation for the U.S. and Chinese militaries, which possess significant resources
and expertise, yet have historically had difficulty cooperating because of differences
in political systems and national interests. The global threat of avian influenza may
be one area in which Sino-American collective security interests are so great as to
outweigh these competing concerns.
XDR Tuberculosis, the New International Health Regulations, and Human Rights
<a href="http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/files/2011/10/Calain-and-Fidler_XDRTuberculosis-the-New-International-Health-Regulations-and-HumanRights.pdf"><strong>XDR Tuberculosis, the New International Health Regulations,
and Human Rights</strong></a>
Philippe Calain and David P. Fidler
Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is the latest emerging disease
recognized as a global health threat. It has so far been identified in at least 27
countries covering all regions of the world except Oceania. A cohort of patients was
investigated in 2005-2006 in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, revealing
an exceedingly high mortality rate and a rapidly fatal evolution among identified
XDR-TB cases. Such alarming features of this new form of tuberculosis seem to
relate at least partly to HIV co-infection. We should, unfortunately, expect the initial
spread of XDR-TB to affect HIV-hyperendemic countries, with the South-African
subcontinent potentially confronting significant burdens from increasing cases,
fatalities, and their attendant costs. The urgency of the XDR-TB threat can be sensed
in some experts’ calls for compulsory isolation of cases, leading if necessary to
forcible detention.