Campbell, Matthew

Start date:
October 2013
Research Topic:
Global Health Security
Research Supervisor:
Prof Colin McInnes & Dr Christian Enemark
Supervising school:
Department of International Politics,
Primary funding source:
ESRC Studentship

Few issues present as large a threat to humans as disease – from drug resistant strains of Tuberculosis, to highly contagious strains of Influenza and endemic levels of HIV/AIDS. Since the year 2000, Security has become an increasingly popular way to conceive of the health challenges facing political actors. My thesis examines how Global Health Security has changed since the financial crash of 2008. The project will examine the interactions between the various different actors engaged in Global Health, and assess whether states are still willing to invest in health security in an era of reduced spending. Three case studies are planned: Pandemic Influenza (a short-wave, acute event), HIV/AIDS (a long-wave, chronic event) and Tobacco related diseases (conditions that fall into a wider category of ‘lifestyle diseases’).