Disease and Human Security the Changing Nature of Security in the Post– Cold War Era

With the collapse of the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it appeared that the world system could be on the threshold of an era of unprecedented peace and stability. Politicians, diplomats, and academics alike began to forecast the imminent establishment of a new world order, increasingly managed by an integrated international system based on the principles of liberal democracy and the free market.1 As this new world order emerged, so it was assumed that serious threats to international stability and security would decline commensurately.