Jul 23, 2026 · 43 min · 11 segments
*How is health connected to national security?* *What role should the military play in health security – and where are the limits?* *How can Australia improve coordination across agencies before the…
Nicholas ThompsonGuest
Esperanza MartinezGuestSharryn ParkerHostEsperanza, can I turn to you first? You state that health should be treated as critical infrastructure.
Can you explain for our audience how health is connected to national security?
Thank you very much for that question, and I would like to begin to, by saying that for decades we have treated health as separate from security, almost intentionally, because there are a number of risks associated in many parts of the world with linking health with mi- militarization or securitization, and the fact that health campaigns and vaccination campaigns have been used for military and, uh, intelligence operations.
So it was almost intentional from the health sector to try to keep the two elements separate.
However, COVID-19 fundamentally challenged that, and I think not only for health practitioners, but also for government officials, in the sense that we saw how health shocks can basically disrupt economies, can shatter public confidence in institutions, can fuel misinformation and disinformation, can show and put in evidence the weaknesses of systems, uh, supply chains and so on and so forth, and increase or reshape geopolitical alliances and, and positioning.
So I think this, this realization really brings to the forefront the fact that health is critically, critical piece for stability of nations and regions.
But I will go a little bit beyond the, the framing of national security, and I will say that at the center of it is health and human security, and with health security being a component of human security.
Other components are, for example, food security, environmental security, social security, justice and so on and so forth.
So if we look at the, the element of human security at the center of national security, regional security, and global security, that provides a little bit of a framework that illustrates better how health is fundamentally a component of that broader landscape of security.
Nick, can I ask you to comment at this point? How does what Esperanza has said intersect with your studies?
It's very salient what, what Dr. Esperanza ha- has kind of outlined there and, and you could, you could go a little further even as well.
And one of the fundamentals here, which kind of even underpinned this discussion even further, is that, that health is a fundamental human right, and therefore it is on the states, every nation state has the absolute obligation to ensure that their, that their citizens, um, have a right to health.
And I think that, that begins to kind of shape the, the conversation when you start to frame it like that, that this is not just national security.
Um, and to ensure that that happens, we have a whole range of, of, of systems at play, whether that be at the national level in terms of, you know, childhood vaccinations, or whether that be at the international level, playing our role with the International Health Regulations two thousand and five.
But yeah, a- as has been laid out to bear, the COVID-19 pandemic really, really kind of pushed this interface of, of health and security right into the living rooms and, and, and indeed the shanty towns a- all, all across the world.
And, and in, in do, in so doing so, it highlighted a range of, of important, you know, kind of constructions here.
Two i- is, you know, the, the, the, the s- the power of economies and, and larger nation states who are, you know, protecting their own citizens first as opposed to kind of a global community.
At the same time, we, we saw some incredibly, some incredible science being done that was fast-tracked and well-resourced and has advanced particularly RNA vaccine technology.
We'd like to think that this conversation is now, is now more mature, and we can actually have this particular part of it.
Esperanza, can I turn to you first? You state that health should be treated as critical infrastructure.
Can you explain for our audience how health is connected to national security?
Thank you very much for that question, and I would like to begin to, by saying that for decades we have treated health as separate from security, almost intentionally, because there are a number of risks associated in many parts of the world with linking health with mi- militarization or securitization, and the fact that health campaigns and vaccination campaigns have been used for military and, uh, intelligence operations.
So it was almost intentional from the health sector to try to keep the two elements separate.
However, COVID-19 fundamentally challenged that, and I think not only for health practitioners, but also for government officials, in the sense that we saw how health shocks can basically disrupt economies, can shatter public confidence in institutions, can fuel misinformation and disinformation, can show and put in evidence the weaknesses of systems, uh, supply chains and so on and so forth, and increase or reshape geopolitical alliances and, and positioning.
So I think this, this realization really brings to the forefront the fact that health is critically, critical piece for stability of nations and regions.
But I will go a little bit beyond the, the framing of national security, and I will say that at the center of it is health and human security, and with health security being a component of human security.
Other components are, for example, food security, environmental security, social security, justice and so on and so forth.
So if we look at the, the element of human security at the center of national security, regional security, and global security, that provides a little bit of a framework that illustrates better how health is fundamentally a component of that broader landscape of security.
Nick, can I ask you to comment at this point? How does what Esperanza has said intersect with your studies?
It's very salient what, what Dr. Esperanza ha- has kind of outlined there and, and you could, you could go a little further even as well.
And one of the fundamentals here, which kind of even underpinned this discussion even further, is that, that health is a fundamental human right, and therefore it is on the states, every nation state has the absolute obligation to ensure that their, that their citizens, um, have a right to health.
And I think that, that begins to kind of shape the, the conversation when you start to frame it like that, that this is not just national security.
Um, and to ensure that that happens, we have a whole range of, of, of systems at play, whether that be at the national level in terms of, you know, childhood vaccinations, or whether that be at the international level, playing our role with the International Health Regulations two thousand and five.
But yeah, a- as has been laid out to bear, the COVID-19 pandemic really, really kind of pushed this interface of, of health and security right into the living rooms and, and, and indeed the shanty towns a- all, all across the world.
And, and in, in do, in so doing so, it highlighted a range of, of important, you know, kind of constructions here.
Two i- is, you know, the, the, the, the s- the power of economies and, and larger nation states who are, you know, protecting their own citizens first as opposed to kind of a global community.
At the same time, we, we saw some incredibly, some incredible science being done that was fast-tracked and well-resourced and has advanced particularly RNA vaccine technology.
We'd like to think that this conversation is now, is now more mature, and we can actually have this particular part of it.
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