International Politics of Ebola

The outbreak of Ebola virus disease that gripped Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone through much of 2014 and 2015 was undoubtedly a health emergency, yet it was also a global political event. This book examines the international politics of the Ebola outbreak in all of its dimensions, critically assessing the global response, examining what the outbreak can tell us about contemporary global health governance, and examining the inequalities and injustices that were laid bare. In doing so, the book shows how some of the concepts, debates and findings from the growing field of global health research in International Relations can help both in furthering understanding of the Ebola crisis and also in improving policy responses to future infectious disease outbreaks. This book was originally published as a special edition of Third World Quarterly.

Anne Roemer-Mahler is a Lecturer in International Relations and a Fellow at the Centre for Global Health Policy at the University of Sussex. Her research focuses on the role of pharmaceutical companies in global governance and the pharmaceuticalisation of global health. Simon Rushton is a Lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield, UK. He has written widely on international responses to HIV/AIDS and other diseases; the links between health and security; the changing nature of global health governance; and issues surrounding health, conflict and post-conflict reconstruction.