Bird flu is also about security

There is, therefore, an urgent need for Indian authorities to re-jig their security concerns. Many problems demand resolutions that are beyond military solutions. The bird flu incidence has shown the potential damage a virus can do to the economy. Interestingly, the damage to the economy is done more by the “fear virus” than the actual virus. Luckily, to date this fear of disease spread is only restricted to poultry stock. If this infection jumps from birds to human beings and if human-to-human transmission begins to manifest itself, the situation could become unmanageable.

In the past when Surat was confronted with the plague, more than half its population had run away within 48 hours. Today many countries, including India, are not in a position to handle any such sudden disease spread. One reason for this ineptness could be that as a nation we are not addressing the comprehensive security concerns with respect to non-military threats properly. Especially after 9/11 and the US declaration of the war on terror, many states have stopped addressing “real” security issues. This is not to argue that terrorism is not an important issue. In fact the classical definition of non-military threats clearly identifies terrorism as its own sub-set. However, where we are possibly making a mistake is in not appreciating the fact that during the last few years in many parts of the world human security has been challenged more often than national security.

The spread of diseases like bird flu is an indicator of future global challenges to human security and demands much greater attention than the mere stockpiling of Tamiflu.

The writer is a defence analyst