The Killing of the Fittest

Increasingly it is argued that HIV/AIDS might threaten the internal and external security of severely affected societies due to its devastating impact on social, political, and economic variables. Although various studies have explored this issue, the question whether and how far HIV/AIDS may affect political stability, lead to state failure, or even to the outbreak of conflict requires empirical examination in the coming years as the epidemic unfolds and the necessary AIDS-death data become available. However, what can be empirically analyzed at this point is the reverse-causal effect or the question whether conflict experience impacts on HIV-prevalence rates. This book introduced decisive mechanisms linking the often complex and indirect relationship between conflict experience and HIV/AIDS. The final theoretical model draws on a social epidemiological approach enlarged by a micro-foundation as well as a conflict dimension. In addition, main results of a corresponding quantitative analysis based on a nearly complete sample of 197 countries are presented before some policy conclusions are drawn.