Autore
Aballéa, Marion

Titolo
Diplomats and the birth of a pandemic. Western embassies and consulates witnessing the early years of AIDS, 1981-1987
Periodico
Quaderni storici
Anno: 2024 - Volume: 177 - Fascicolo: 3 - Pagina iniziale: 665 - Pagina finale: 693

In the early and mid-1980s, diplomats posted in locations where AIDS made most of its first victims had a front-row seat to watch the new disease grow into a global pandemic. With their feet on the most severely affected grounds and their connections to international networks, they seemed to be in a privileged position to monitor the evolution of the new threat, and to be among the first witnesses of the disaster to come. Based on the analysis of reports from diplomats of four Western countries serving in places that were considered as the hotspots of the disease – the United States, Haiti, Central and Southern Africa – this paper explores what they did from this position. How did they report about AIDS in these early days? Were they mostly blind witnesses, or did they try to alert their governments about what was happening before their eyes? Framing the disease with their own sets of references and interests, their early reporting contributed to turning AIDS into an unprecedented diplomatic issue, and changed the role of diplomats serving abroad.



SICI: 0301-6307(2024)177:3<665:DATBOA>2.0.ZU;2-D
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.1408/118960
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1408/118960

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