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Who owns a deadly virus? Viral sovereignty, global health emergencies, and the matrix of the international

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-10, 03:04 authored by Stefan ElbeStefan Elbe
This article investigates the global inequities imbricated in the international response to lethal viruses. It does so by developing a virographic approach to the study of international relations that builds upon the matrix methods pioneered within black feminist thought for unraveling particularly complex forms of interlocking oppression. Performing such a virography of international relations exposes the multifaceted economic, racial, and epistemological disparities embedded in the international management of emergent viruses. It further demonstrates how those multiple axes of international inequality intersect during viral outbreaks to form a deadly matrix of global subjugation—vital abandonment—that repeatedly deprives the world's majority population from equitable access to life-saving biomedical interventions. It finally also reveals how diplomatic assertions of viral sovereignty, that is, claiming legal ownership of pathogens, are directly enrolling lethal viruses now in the political strategies of countries seeking to resist their vital abandonment. Overall, a virography thus contributes to the broader study of international relations by foregrounding the global salience of epidemiological injustices and positionalities, by capturing the actant power of lethal viruses in contemporary world politics, and by intimating that the “international” can itself be studied as a continually reconfiguring matrix of interlocking and historically conditioned global inequities.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

International Political Sociology

ISSN

1749-5679

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Page range

1-18

Department affiliated with

  • International Relations Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2022-04-04

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2022-04-04

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2022-04-03

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