Securitization and SARS: A New Framing?

Abstract

the 2003 SARS outbreak also proved to be a remarkable event and powerfully illustrated the benefits of a new way of working. Indeed, as this chapter and the next go on to argue, by the time the SARS coronavirus had begun to spread internationally the WHO secretariat had come to embrace a new approach to managing infectious diseases that was increasingly being described as 'global health security'. Though not yet finalized, the IO's formal health-for-security delegation contract was undergoing a transformation-one in which health-for-security was being actively and intentionally recast. Health was no longer just viewed as a vehicle to ensure international peace and security, but instead had come to be recognized as a legitimate security issue in and of itself. This new understanding of health-as-security took some years for the WHO to fully embrace, but the timing of the SARS outbreak proved instrumental in convincing not only the IO's member states of the need for this new management style, but also several internal stakeholders within the organization.