Strategic Implications of Global Health

Abstract

"Strategic Implications of Global Health" responds to a request from the Undersecretary of State for Democratization and Global Affairs for an intelligence assessment on the connections between health and U.S. national interests. This study builds on a 2000 NIE, "The Global Infectious Disease Threat and its Implications for the United States," a pioneering Intelligence Community effort to identify infectious disease as an intelligence issue. This study diverges from that paper, however, in that it expands the field of inquiry to fully encompass all aspects of global health, including maternal mortality, malnutrition, chronic diseases, and other relevant noninfectious health issues. While these may not represent direct threats to U.S. interests in the way that acute infections do, these health determinants can also have wide-ranging -- if more slow-moving and subtle -- impacts on the global scene. This study places a greater focus on the strategic impacts of global health, with minimal discussion of disease pathologies. This discussion is based in part on case studies of countries in the developing, communist, and post-communist worlds that illustrate the nexus between health and other strategic issues. Many of the phenomena examined herein are occurring now, but are frequently unrecognized or unacknowledged outside the health community. Current WHO data indicate that three-quarters of all deaths by 2030 will be due to noncommunicable factors (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and traffic accidents), while deaths due to major infections such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria will decline sharply even in the poorest countries. Although this is in a way a good news story -- indicative of economic development worldwide -- it also requires new ways of thinking about both global health and its strategic implications. Case studies of Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Cuba, India, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Nigeria, North Korea, Russia, and South Africa are included.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA493419

Entities

People

  • Karen Monaghan

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anti-Infective Agents
  • Body Weight
  • Disease Outbreaks
  • Drug Abuse
  • Health Services
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Medical Personnel
  • National Governments

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