1HIV/AIDS, The Military and the Future of Africa’s Security

In confronting the policy issues associated with health related crises, the humanitarian concerns are often at the forefront of the agenda for many agencies and organizations. While important and with merit, other policy areas of equal significance may be ignored or overlooked that could worsen the humanitarian consequences. The HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa presents such a case in point. To scholars and policy practitioners who study Africa, the issue of whether HIV/AIDS constitutes a threat to state security is not a question of whether the threat exists – it does. Instead, the focus on the pandemic’s threat to security is centered on how serious the threat is to the stability of African states during one of the continent’s most tumultuous historical periods. During the past decade, the African continent has undergone tremendous transformation. At the end of the Cold War, the competition between East and West for dominance came to an abrupt halt following the Soviet Union’s demise. Peaceful democratic reforms that signaled a shift from autocratic dictatorships swept through a number of African countries, including apartheid South Africa in 1994. But domestic changes were not the only reform brought about by the collapse of the Cold War. Perhaps the most detrimental change that confronted Africa