Infectious Diseases as Threats to Security? A Case Study on the West African Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak of 2014-2016

The West African Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Outbreak of 2014-2016, concentrated in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, was the worst EVD outbreak in history. There are different ways of framing global health issues, from... [ view full abstract ]

The West African Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Outbreak of 2014-2016, concentrated in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, was the worst EVD outbreak in history. There are different ways of framing global health issues, from characterizing them as humanitarian issues to characterizing them as threats to security. To address the EVD outbreak, many influential actors in the international community adopted a securitization framework for issue construction. The framework characterizes the EVD outbreak as a threat to human and/or national security. This thesis is a single case study on the 2014-2016 West African Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak, but it situates itself in the context of the previous securitization of infectious diseases. HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Avian Flu are three important and recent cases where securitization is thought to have occurred to a significant degree. In this thesis, I explore two key questions. First, how was the West African Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak of 2014-2016 constructed as a security issue? Second, how did securitization shape the international response to the outbreak? We will explore the construction of the securitization framework by two principal actors studied, the United States Government and the World Health Organization, and how this framework shaped their governance and policy. There will be both qualitative process-tracing analysis as well as quantitative data analysis of financial contributions to the WHO and spending by the U.S. Government.