Threats to Ukraine’s health security

Health security is directly proportional to the sovereignty of the state and the abil lity to provide health services in its area. Conflicts and wars are inextricably linked to the spread of diseases and the deterioration of health security.
More than three years of conflict in Ukraine has contributed to the occurrence of many health security threats. These include, among others, impeded access to health services (closing at least 160 healthcare facilities) with an increased demand for such services, attacks on medical personnel, lack of access to basic medicines (including the lack of vaccines causing the loss of control over the occurrence of infectious diseases) and medical supplies, the inability of humanitarian aid to reach all the areas controlled by the insurgents.
Threats to Ukraine’s health security may have consequences in the form of cross-border threats to public health. They pose challenges faced by the World Health Organization, along with other specialized agencies of the United Nations and partners in providing humanitarian aid.

Bardzo często, kiedy w dyskursie publicznym analizie poddaje się poziom i skalę bezpieczeństwa człowieka, na plan pierwszy wysuwa się „bezpieczeństwo zdrowotne” tegoż. Wynika to przede wszystkim z faktu, że na wszelkiego rodzaju rozwój (zarówno w skali globalnej, kontynentalnej, państwowej, regionalnej czy jednostkowej) diametralny wpływ ma właśnie zdrowie człowieka. Niestety wpływ na nie ma nierzadko szereg czynników niezależnych od niego samego. Warunków, zarówno jego zagwarantowania, jak i niedostatku szukać należy w przyczynach politycznych, ekonomicznych, społecznych, kulturowych, demograficznych, czy też stanu środowiska naturalnego. Jakość i poziom zdrowia człowieka, zarówno w kontekście społecznym, jak i publicznym, uzależnione będą w takim samym stopniu od postępujących stale procesów globalizacyjnych, które przenikają dzisiaj do każdej płaszczyzny życia jednostki, jak i od sytuacji państwa, w którym dana jednostka funkcjonuje.
W poniższym artykule autorka podejmuje próbę analizy zależności pomiędzy skalą dysfunkcyjności państwa a poziomem bezpieczeństwa zdrowotnego jego obywateli. W jej opinii, słabość administracji państwowej, korupcja, nepotyzm, ubóstwo, analfabetyzm, bezrobocie etc., tak charakterystyczne dla państw „dysfunkcyjnych – wrażliwych”, to główne przyczyny problemów „bezpieczeństwa zdrowotnego”. Obszar badań stanowić będzie kontynent afrykański, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem Afryki Subsaharyjskiej, ponieważ skupia on w swoim regionie najwięcej państw dysfunkcyjnych w skali globu.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a determinant of the operation of state institutions whose activity was focused on ensuring state’s capacity to exercise its functions and at the same time on efforts to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2. These challenges were the same for all European (and non-European) countries, albeit the methods of limiting the transmission of the virus and of minimising its negative consequences varied depending on the strategy adopted. The paper focuses on an analysis of its impact on how parliamentary elections in Serbia are organized and held. The author intentionally omits circumstances that accompany regional (to the parliament of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina) and local elections held in parallel.

The aim of this article is to analyse the category of health security in the 2014 and 2020 National Security Strategies of the Republic of Poland. The starting point is the adoption of a proper definition of health security considered as a process in which many elements participate and which is influenced by many factors of social, economic, environmental, etc., nature. This approach captures the specificity of health security as an essential element of state and citizen security. The analysis of the documents proves that the authors do not consider the multifactorial and multidimensional nature of health security, and thus do not indicate in the Strategies the key threats to health and life and, above all, effective solutions introduced at state level, whose main task would be to maintain an adequate level of health security.

Health security as a dimension of international security

Health security is a dimension of international security, resulting from the securitization of its threats. The article proposes to include health security in the second generation of non-military dimensions of security (the first generation being those proposed by the Copenhagen school). The aim of the article is to analyze the specificity, i.e., autonomization, of health security in relation to: 1) the specificity of threats; 2) securitization of these threats; 3) determination of the referent object; 4) ensuring health security. The focus was on the structure of the phenomenon and the structure of each of its elements. Firstly, the specificity of securitization of health threats by a political entity such as the United States was analyzed in particular. Secondly, the human individual was taken into account as susceptible to health hazards. Thirdly, actions for health security were analyzed at the level of the international system and at the level of national health care systems.