Politics in the hot zone: Aids and national security in Africa

Traditional security studies and international relations theory do little to address the security issues associated with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Because security studies and international relations have been preoccupied with conditions affecting the major powers, little of the long history of international relations and national security has practical application to Africa and the HIV/AIDS epidemic it is experiencing. From a theoretical perspective many fields of security studies and international relations do not adequately address critical dimensions in dealing with security. Dimensions of time, scope and depth are often overlooked. This point is important regarding the AIDS epidemic because time and extent often determine the security threat and whether it is a short-run threat (which is subject to greater political expediency) or a long-run threat (which is subject to less political expediency). In the short run the epidemic threatens the security of political institutions, the military and military operations. In the long run the security of populations and national economic performance are at risk.