Thinking Politically About HIV

AIDS has a unique political history. As fears grew of a global pandemic on the scale of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS was briefly treated as an issue of high politics in the international arena and generated significant resources for country programmes. That initial commitment is now declining, and if AIDS is to maintain its visibility and contribution to global solidarity, human rights and dignity, its politics will have to evolve to reflect the profound geo-political, economic and social transformations underway today.

This volume brings together leading scholars from a variety of disciplines who work at the intersection of politics and HIV. They reflect on the lessons learned from the past thirty years of the politics of AIDS and how political science, writ large, can further contribute to the understanding and practice of political mobilization around AIDS. Through case studies and analysis, new insights into identity politics and social movements in countries as diverse as Brazil, Switzerland, Vietnam and Zambia are offered alongside new approaches to understanding the determinants and incentives which generate political will and commitment.

This book was published as a special issue of Contemporary Politics.

Kent Buse, PhD, is a political economist with a focus on health policy analysis. He is currently Chief of Political Affairs and Strategy at UNAIDS. He has taught at Yale University and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and has worked with a range of international organizations.

Dennis Altman is a political scientist who has written a number of key books on sexuality, HIV and AIDS, and Australian politics. He was President of the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (2001-2005), and a member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society (2004-2012).