Rethinking the Infodemic: Global Health Security and Information Disorder

Rethinking the Infodemic: Global Health Security and Information Disorder

infodemic

disinformation

vaccine diplomacy

global health

security

covid-19

The discourse on the infodemic constructs the combination of thepandemic and disinformation as a new source of insecurity on a globalscale. How can we make sense – analytically and politically– of this newlypoliticized nexus of public health, information management, and globalsecurity? This article proposes approaching the phenomenon of theinfodemic as an intersecting securitization of information disorder andhealth governance. Specifically, it argues that there are two distinct framesof security mobilized in the context of infodemic governance: informationas a disease and information as a weapon. Drawing on literatures on globalhealth and the emerging research on disinformation, the paper situates thetwo framings of the infodemic in broader discourses on the medicalizationof security, and securitization of information disorder, respectively. Thearticle critically reflects on each framing and offers some preliminarythoughts on how to approach the entanglements of health, security, andinformation disorder in contemporary global politics.

Rychnovská, Dagmar

Czech Journal of International Relations; Vol. 56 No. 4 (2021); 77-90

2788-2993

2788-2985

Institute of International Relations Prague

2021-12-01

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0

application/pdf

eng

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion