In recent years, new disease threats--such as SARS, avian flu, mad cow disease, and drug-resistant strains of malaria and tuberculosis--have garnered media attention and galvanized political response. Proposals for new approaches to "securing health" against these threats have come not only from public health and medicine but also from such fields as emergency management, national security, and global humanitarianism.

This volume provides a map of this complex and rapidly transforming terrain. The editors focus on how experts, public officials, and health practitioners work to define what...