Realism Gone Awry
Hidden deep in this week’s NYT article, “In Global Battle on AIDS, Bush Creates Legacy,” I noticed this paragraph:
Colin L. Powell, then the new secretary of state, was deeply troubled by demographics showing that in some African nations, AIDS threatened to wipe out the entire child-bearing population – a condition that could create instability, and a climate ripe for terrorism. Just weeks into his new job, he called Tommy G. Thompson, the new administration’s health and human services secretary.
“I said, ‘Tommy, this is not just a health matter, this is a national security matter,’” Mr Powell recalled. They vowed to work together, and the president, Mr. Powell said, “bought into it immediately.”
Am I crazy, or is there not a compelling argument for addressing AIDS outside of the “national security” angle? What happened to the notion of fighting AIDS merely because it’s an extremely pressing moral and humanitarian issue? Honestly, is it truly not enough of a reason for action that AIDS threatens to “wipe out the entire child-bearing population” of some African nations? I don’t get it.
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3 Responses to “Realism Gone Awry”
Jeb, as I believe you are an international relations student at some level, you might be interested in research by Buzan, who demonstrates how issues get linked with “security” (a process he calls “securitization”) as a way of increasing their rhetorical and political power and ability to gain resources.
Now people not only need to do the “right” thing they must also have the “right” reason for doing so and go about it in the “right” way.
“What happened to the notion of fighting AIDS merely because it’s an extremely pressing moral and humanitarian issue?”
Nothing. That has been there and the USA has been at the forefront of progress on AIDS (notwithstanding the ranting of often scummy activists, who demanded a responsibility-and-risk-free instant solution to a novel, mysterious problem) since the 1980s.
It's not as if the USA or the West are, by definition, compelled to engage in the superhuman whenever there's something wrong in the world (pee-cee uber alles).