Global Health is a Security Issue by Mari Faines

Global Health is a Security Issue

By Mari Faines

As we enter the third year of a global pandemic, we are also two years removed from the Black Lives Matter “Summer of Protest,” a global uprising about racial equity not only in the United States but across the globe. In the wake of these events, the foreign policy and national security community was forced to reckon with systemic failures and policy contributions that they have made to inequitable systems. In March 2021, President Biden released his Interim National Security Guidance, which, reflecting on the future of our nation, states, “We must prove that our model isn’t a relic of history; it’s the single best way to realize the promise of our future.” With plans like “Build Back Better,” Biden asserts there is good in our nation’s past, and further, hope for a brighter future.

Although the sentiment is admirable, the fact is that for many populations in this country, such a historic reflection does not provide a positive lens. For Black and Brown people across the United States, reminders of our nation’s past aren’t better days. Rather, they are the baseline for systems designed to disenfranchise our communities on a daily basis.

As advocates and policy professionals move to advance a more secure world, we must enhance our understanding of safety and security—not just by changing who is included in the conversation, but also by expanding the topics of conversation. As we look toward the future, we must commit to creating policies that are rooted in anti-racist practices. Reflecting on the current state of affairs, global health is one of the first places to start.

Why is this a Security Issue?

Traditionally when analyzing safety and security, it reflects “hard security” issues, but today, we must acknowledge the importance of “soft security,” especially global health. It is imperative to recognize that fighting infectious diseases and that creating a global standard for health care is a security issue. These are essential to our safety and establishing a more equitable and anti-racist society. While individuals who work in national security, defense, and foreign policy typically focus on military tactics, deterrence theories, or diplomacy, these are not the daily musings of the average citizen. The pandemic has exacerbated the ways in which these insecurities affect all people, but especially Black and Brown communities. For those individuals, the daily ailments that cause insecurity in their lives are often rooted in proximate threats evolving around personal issues, access to jobs, housing, education, and, most importantly, health.

While the pandemic has further exacerbated all proximate security issues, it has truly magnified health insecurities, particularly for Black and Brown communities. In the past few months, there have been clear racial divides around health issues created by the effects of media coverage and policy decisions. Whether acknowledging the misinformation spread about the origin of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa, the inability of wealthy and powerful countries to work with the WTO to share vaccine patent waivers to protect predominantly Black and Brown countries from the pandemic, or continued domestic conversations around the impact of vaccination rates in Black and Brown communities on the nation’s ability stabilize this pandemic, there continues to be a disconnect between the people and the policy.

The Problem

For decades, the United States has created policies at federal, state, and even local levels that were unequal in terms of access and quality of care for all citizens. These policies have generated conditions leading to unequal access to education, jobs, housing, and economic opportunities, which has led to poor health outcomes for communities of color. Members of Black and Brown communities are more likely to die from treatable diseases directly linked to issues surrounding access to care, lack of nutrition, and a general lack of understanding of health literacy and health systems.

The pandemic has ravaged Black and Brown communities, and again it is due predominantly to systemic failings that have been in place for decades. Inequitable policies enacted upon Black and Brown communities produced higher poverty rates; people work in lower-paying industries, now considered essential work; and living conditions are extremely high-risk for myriad reasons, including to lack of access to food and higher rates of violence. The United States cannot continue to offer security guidance and consider itself at the forefront of global health strategy if it cannot commit to creating more equitable systems for all populations within its own country.

The Solution

Creating these equitable solutions starts by developing policy that is rooted in anti-racist principles. This is not generating policy with affected communities in mind; rather, it is actively producing policies that will benefit Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. Policymakers must move their conversations from the ivory towers of academia and the meeting rooms in D.C., and engage Black and Brown—especially low-income—communities who have been negatively impacted by these systems. Policy will have to include public and private partnerships rooted in trust and understanding.

In order to fix community relations, policymakers will also need to change health policy into something that acknowledges health care hesitancy in communities of color and outlines tangible ways to repair the historical effects of medical racism. There must be an implementation of healthcare literacy programs that teach communities in a way that is culturally relevant. Policymakers must work to remove barriers and allow for communities to have easier access to care. This includes transportation to hospitals as well as better integration of healthcare systems within the community. It also requires providing more equitable coverage, changing enrollment processes for patrons, limiting bureaucracy, and becoming more aggressive in creating diverse planning options for subsidies, deductibles, and overall coverage. These are the first steps in showing commitment to more equitable systems. Leading by example will help implement better domestic policy, leading to our further commitment to create better global health and security.

Conclusion

Antiracism as a security issue is about understanding what makes people feel secure. Most people are not made to feel more secure with a $700+ billion proposed military spending budget. Reallocating funds and committing to changing health policy and equity in their own communities does. There will always be a need for hard security, but it is the ability to change people’s access to daily, quality care that will impact their potential to live full lives. People will feel safe and secure when you take away the insecurity of not knowing where to get their care.

There is no question that, for decades, Black and Brown communities have been devoid of adequate security and care. Now is the opportunity to change that. Moving forward, the United States must invest in creating healthier communities that will provide more safe and secure spaces. Those in power must upend inequitable policies that have killed communities and start prioritizing people over profit. The work has started by opening the conversation, but it is time to go further. For the United States to truly be a leader on the world stage through actions like pushing our allies to support global health and safety work—including sharing vaccine patents and creating a standard for care—It must invest in creating anti-racist policies that uplift the most disenfranchised pockets of our communities at home. Only then can we achieve the change that we want to see reflected across the globe.