Exploring the Construction of Threats: The Securitization of HIV/AIDS in Russia
2008; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 39; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1177/0967010607086821
ISSN1460-3640
Autores Tópico(s)International Relations and Foreign Policy
ResumoIn April 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly declared HIV/AIDS to be a threat to Russia's national security and proposed a guiding strategy to handle it. This move stood in sharp contrast to previous policies of the Russian government. Despite the fact that Russia has experienced one of the fastest growing rates of HIV/AIDS in the world since the turn of the millennium, the government's involvement had previously been minimal, not recognizing AIDS as a national security threat. The question then arises: when is a threat really threatening? This article contributes to the development of theories on threat-framing and security decisionmaking by suggesting an analytical framework that incorporates explanatory variables from different levels of analysis. The adoption of a broad theoretical position facilitates a comprehensive understanding of time and space variations in the securitization of issues. The article demonstrates that norms and identity constructions at the international and domestic levels, combined with their internalization by individual decisionmakers, can together explain Putin's move, and that these factors are of different importance at difference stages of the threat-construction process.
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