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| Author: | Laurie Garrett, Senior Fellow for Global Health |
|---|
July 18, 2005
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is affecting the security of states throughout the world, weakening economies, military and police forces, government structures, and social structures. This is the principal conclusion of the Council Report, HIV and National Security: Where Are the Links?
Authored by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council, the report finds that nations with high rates of HIV infection in their productive labor forces and uniformed services have managed to remain intact, from the village level on up, through a plethora of coping mechanisms. But many of these nations are "coping" with HIV while also experiencing massive poverty, tuberculosis, drug-resistant malaria, regional conflicts, and a host of other serious challenges. HIV is exacerbating each of these problems, and they, in turn, are straining mechanisms designed to cope with AIDS to the point of failure.
These effects are being felt long before the great wave of AIDS illnesses and deaths have occurred in most of these countries, and are predicted to worsen deeply over the coming ten years. "The pandemic now directly afflicts approximately forty million people, has orphaned more than twelve million children, and killed more than twenty million people."
Foreword 5
Acknowledgments 7
Executive Summary 9
Report
Why a HIV/Security Linkage Matters 13
The Black Death 17
The Long Wavelength Problem 20
The Claims 23
What Does the Evidence Show: Armed Forces 25
UN Peacekeepers and HIV 31
Relationship Between Conflict and HIV 34
Accusation as Weapon 35
Verification 36
Social Instability: Security and Afflicted States 40
The Threats to Relatively Less-afflicted States 51
Recommendations 57
Notes 61
About the Author 67
Report released as UN Security Council convenes for 5 year progress assessment of Resolution 1308, which designated HIV a potential threat to nations' security.
July 18, 2005-The HIV/AIDS pandemic is affecting the security of states throughout the world, weakening economies, government structures, military and police forces, and social structures. This is the principal conclusion of a new Council Report, HIV and National Security: Where Are the Links? "Today, more than ever before, threats are interrelated and a threat to one is a threat to all. The mutual vulnerability of weak and strong has never been clearer...the security of the most affluent state can be held hostage to the ability of the poorest state to contain an emerging disease."
Authored by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council, the report finds that states with high rates of HIV infection in their productive labor forces and uniformed services have managed to remain intact, from the village level on up, through a plethora of coping mechanisms. But many of these nations are "coping" with HIV while also experiencing massive poverty, tuberculosis, drug-resistant malaria, regional conflicts and a host of other serious challenges. HIV is exacerbating each of these problems, and they, in turn, are straining mechanisms designed to cope with AIDS to the point of failure.
These effects are being felt long before the great wave of AIDS illnesses and deaths have occurred in most of these countries, and are predicted to worsen deeply over the coming ten years. "The pandemic now directly afflicts approximately 40 million people, has orphaned more than 12 million children, and killed more than 20 million people."
In less hard-hit countries, including those in Western Europe and North America, the national security impact of HIV manifests itself in the form of anti-Western resentment over inequitable access to life-sparing drugs; the use of HIV, itself, as a weapon or accusation; disinvestment potential; increased probabilities of local instabilities in strategic areas; and rising demand for direct financial and skills investment in hard-hit areas. While concerns about potential links between the pandemic and terrorism are certainly exaggerated, the Council report finds that the HIV epidemic is contributing to social alienation and could provide areas of operation for outside terrorist forces.
Among the report's recommendations:
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