Scholarly Resources on Pandemics: An Incomplete List

28 March 2020

Although many of the questions coming out of the COVID-19 crisis seem new, there is a long-standing literature on pandemics which have discussed issues such as lessons learned, readiness, the role of international institutions and the ethics of surveillance for decades. Some scholars, like Steve Saideman have raised concern that mainstream International Relations has ignored pandemics. This is not to make a comment on that, but to point out to some of what is out there on the margins of the IR/national security discipline.

NOTE: While this is not my area of expertise, I have taught pandemics as both a threat to critical infrastructure and as an international security issue for several years. So please excuse my ham-fisted attempt here. I am aware that there is much missing – I have not even included the legal literature. (Don’t tell Craig.) Suggestions welcome and I can add to this list as the crisis goes on.

Oh - and for fun you can always read Dan Drezner’s Theory of International Politics and Zombies, Revived Edition, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2014.  https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691163703/theories-of-international-politics-and-zombies or the Foreign Policy version of his book here.

Securitization and Health/AIDS

Much of the contemporary literature with more-or-less an International Relations bent comes out of the academic literature on the securitization of AIDS and global health that was a big issue in the 1990s/2000s.

Stefan Elbe, “Chapter 25: Health and Security”, in Alan Collins, Contemporary Security Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Stefan Elbe, “Should HIV/AIDS be Securitized” The Ethical Dilemmas of Linking HIV/AIDS and Security”, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28. No. 2, 2003. pp. 78-111.

Colin McInnes and Simon Rushton, “HIV/AIDS and Securitization Theory”, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2011.

Robert L. Ostergard Jr, “Politics in the hot zone: AIDS and national security in Africa”, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2002. Pp. 333–350.

 

Security/Readiness Assessments:

These are more main-stream assessments about state readiness and the security implications of pandemics. They tend to have a policy-bent to them.

Peter Doshi, “How should we plan for pandemics?” BMJ: British Medical Journal, Vol. 339, No. 7721, 12 September 2009. pp. 603-605

Foreign Affairs, Special Section on Pandemics, Vol. 84, No. 4, July-August 2005. Pp. 2-64.

Landis MacKellar, “Pandemic Influenza: A Review”, Population and Development Review, Vol. 33, No. 3, September 2007. pp. 429-45 

Marie-Helen Maras, and Michelle D. Miranda, “State Intervention During Public Health Emergencies: Is the United States Prepared for an Ebola Outbreak?”, Journal of Homeland Security & Emergency Management,  Vol. 12, No. 2, 2015. pp 257–271

Michael T. Osterholm, “Unprepared for a Pandemic”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 86, No. 2, March-April 2007.  pp. 47-57

Jeanne S. Ringel and Jeffrey Wasserman, “Chapter 14: The Public Health System in the Wake of 9/11: Progress Made and Challenges Remaining”, in Brian Michael Jenkins, John Godges ed. The Long Shadow of 9/11: America's Response to Terrorism, Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2011. Available online: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1107.html

Joseph Scanlon, and Terry McMahon, "Dealing with mass death in disasters and pandemics: Some key differences but many similarities", Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, Vol. 20, No 2, 2011. pp.172 - 185

 

Ethics of Surveillance/Biosurvellance:

There was also a surge in the literature on the ethics of “biosurveillance” in critical international relations work that mirrored the increase of concern surrounding surveillance in the War on Terror generally. Contemporary research explores the ethics of technology in the context of pandemics and disasters.

Claudia Aradau, Luis Lobo-Guerrero, Luis and Rens Van Munster, “Security, Technologies of Risk, and the Political: Guest Editors’ Introduction.” Security Dialogue, 39.2-3 (2008): 147–154. (see the special issue)

Sarah Davies, “Nowhere to hide: informal disease surveillance networks tracing state behavior”, Global Change, Peace & Security, Vol 24.1, 2012.

Sarah Davies and Jeremy Youde, “The IHR (2005), Disease Surveillance, and the Individual in Global Health Politics”, The International Journal of Human Rights, Vol.17(1), January 2013. pp.133-151

Stephen L. Roberts “Signals, Signs and Syndromes: Tracing [Digital] Transformations in European Health Security” European Journal of Risk Regulation, 10(4), 2019. 722-737. doi:10.1017/err.2019.68

Jeremy Youde, “Biosurveillance, human rights, and the zombie plague”, Global Change, Peace & Security, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2012. pp. 83-93.

 

Lessons Learned/Review:

These are mainly evaluations of how states/institutions performed during a pandemic and policy recommendations going forward.

Commission to Investigate the Introduction and Spread of SARS in Ontario, The Sars Commission, 2007. Available online: http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/e_records/sars/report/index.html

Stacey Knobler, Adel Mahmoud, Stanley Lemon, Alison Mack, Laura Sivitz, and Katherine Oberholtzer, Eds. Learning From SARS: Preparing for the Next Disease Outbreak, Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2004. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92462/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK92462.pdf

Donald E. Low, and Allison McGeer, “Pandemic (H1N1) 2009: assessing the response” Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 182 No. 17, November 2010. pp. 1874-8.

Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Ontario, “Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 : A Review of Ontario's Response” 17 December 2010. Available online: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/common/ministry/publications/reports/h1n1_review/h1n1_review.aspx

 

Critical Infrastructure/Resilience:

This literature is in the context of disaster response. Much of it, however discusses the need to build trust between communities and government authorities to improve response and resilience.

Arjen Boin, and Allan McConnell, “Preparing for Critical Infrastructure Breakdowns: The Limits of Crisis Management and the Need for Resilience”, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, Vol. 15. No. 1, 2007. pp. 50-59.

Fran H. Norris, et al. “Community Resilience as a Metaphor, Theory, Set of Capacities, and Strategy for Disaster Readiness”, American Journal of Community Psychology, Vol. 41, No. 1,  2008. pp. 127-150.

Douglas Paton, and David Johnston, "Disasters and communities: vulnerability, resilience and preparedness", Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, Vol. 10, No 4, 2001. pp. 270 – 277.

 

Official government resources:

 Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, “ Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic” http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/documents/zombie_gn_final.pdf

Public Safety Canada, “North American Plan For Animal and Pandemic Influenza”, 2 April 2012. Available online: http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/nml-pndmc-nflnz/index-eng.aspx

 

 

Stephanie Carvin