Güvenlik Bilimleri Dergisi

Öz

The concept of national security emerged during World War II. The state was identified as the object of reference of the concept and the self-help of the state was emphasised. The United States of America (USA) was influential in developing the concept. When it first emerged, the concept was used to struggle military threats, and then, as the Cold War began to detente, economic threats were included in the concept. The end of the Cold War had an impact on the content of the concept, and social, environmental and health threats were included in the national security framework. With the influence of the period, the concept of national health security was formed. National health security is briefly defined as health threats that disrupt the stability and public order of the state. Among these threats, infectious diseases, global pandemics and biological weapons were accepted. The study will seek an answer to the question of how global pandemics pose a national security threat. The aim is to reveal the continuities, changes and transformations in the discourse and actions of the USA by using the process tracing method through the SARS and Covid-19 pandemics, how the USA perceives global pandemics as a national health security threat. In doing so, the discourses of USA Presidents George W. Bush, Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the pandemics and the USA National Security Strategy documents of 2002, 2017 and 2022 were analysed for actions. The study shows that the USA perceives the People’s Republic of China as a national health security threat and global pandemics are perceived as an economic threat.