Review of Virus Alert: Security, Governmentality, and the AIDS Pandemic by Stefan Elbe. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. 224 pp. Hardcover: $45.00, ISBN: 978-0-231-14868-9
Reviewed by Marina Karbowski
The beginning of the 21st century is marked by the revival of a number of infectious diseases celebrating their comebacks or new lethal viruses circulating around the planet. Those pandemics are not just described as issues concerning the medical sector but are also formulated in the language of security, ending the era of formulating security in terms of armed conflicts – in short: health issues become securitized.