What is it about?
The outbreak of COVID-19 has shifted from an urgent health issue into a major security threat requiring emergency measures that go beyond normal policies. Many African governments have exploited this pandemic as a deadly threat facing both the state and society to justify unprecedented precautionary measures that restrict people's freedoms. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the current trend of the interventionist state and its socio-political implications in the medium and long term.
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Why is it important?
The key findings reveal that most of the African responses to the pandemic were cases of non-traditional securitization issues. It is apparent from this paper that new strands of securitization are valuable in examining the COVID-19 responses in the global South, thus, unlocking new avenues for future studies.
Perspectives
I hope this article clarifies what people may think is an area limited to the health pandemic, as the spread of Covid_19 has had major political, economic, and social repercussions on the lives of Africans. As a result of the prevalence of security approaches and the politicization of methods of responding to the virus, we may witness an authoritarian face of the African state despite its inability to provide public services.
Professor Hamdy A. Hassan
Zayed University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The securitisation of COVID-19 in Africa: Socio-economic and political implications, African Security Review, November 2021, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/10246029.2021.1994438.
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