Book Review Forum on Sara E. Davies’ Containing Contagion. An Introduction.

Containing Contagion: The Politics of Disease Outbreaks in Southeast Asia. Sara E. Davies. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA, 2019, pp. xii + 212. ISBN 978‐1‐421‐42739‐3 (pbk).

The Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography invited three reviewers (Tim Brown, Alan Ingram, and Kate Seewald) to review Containing Contagion at a time of a global pandemic (COVID‐19), when procedures, practices, norms, and forms of regional and sub‐regional action to report and contain the spread of highly infectious disease are being critically challenged. In addition to the three reviews, we asked Sara E. Davies to respond (Davies, 2021).

Containing Contagion is written from an international relations perspective on the forms of international cooperation required to tackle transnational health security threats. In doing so it explores the intricacies and complexities of global‐regional and intra‐regional efforts aimed at generating international norms for disease surveillance, monitoring, preparedness and response. One of the themes running through the book is the geopolitical nature of public health security, discussed in terms of transnational health security threats, International Health Regulations (IHRs), and regional diplomacy which encompass a multi‐scale matrix that includes differing global, regional, financial, technical, national, and subnational institutions, agents and actors. The author explores health security issues based upon her access to the different tiers of public health regulation, from the World Health Organization (WHO), including the Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) and South East Asia Regional Office (SEARO), through to relevant officials in ASEAN, relevant Southeast Asian national health ministries, and Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Infectious Diseases (APSED) evaluation teams. This meticulous study enables readers to better appreciate the significance of health security issues and the vital role that formal and informal medical, technical and public health networks play in establishing and strengthening IHRs, preparedness against contagious diseases, and enhanced regional cooperation in tackling transnational health risks within Southeast Asia, and beyond.

Each reviewer has provided constructive responses to Containing Contagion. Seewald (2021) reminds us of ways in which authoritarian regimes may use the excuse of contagion to crackdown on political opposition. Both Brown (2021) and Ingram (2021) note where international relations approaches may productively meet with geographies of global health and political geography in relation to thinking about health security and relevant international responses, non‐traditional (health) security threats challenge conventional notions of national security and sovereignty on many levels. Two reiterated issues in Containing Contagion are what Davies calls ‘lived experience’ of previous disease outbreaks within Southeast Asia, particularly Nipah virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and H5N1 influenza, in leading states to view outbreak response and capacity building as a matter of both regional and national security and the relative success of APSED in helping to embed international norms within Southeast Asia, based upon efforts to turn IHRs into ‘a regional project’ that recognizes political sensitivities, and is largely enacted through formal and informal networks that helped generate transnational ‘epistemic communities’ (p. 177).

COVID‐19 produced numerous health security challenges at multi‐scales, globally and within Southeast Asia. Published prior to the global pandemic, Containing Contagion offers valuable insights into the intricacies, diplomacies and practicalities of international health security. Undoubtedly, the international norms discussed by the author have now been put to a maximum stress test. It is hoped that this review forum may encourage a sequel to Containing Contagion.