More Health, Less Talk: Horton Stresses Prioritizing Human Security in Foreign Policy
Editor Richard Horton defends the results of a Lancet study on the Iraqi death toll, offering recommendations for new policy implementation. The Lancet survey reported the number of Iraqi deaths as 250% higher than before the U.S. invasion.
Horton urges the international community to use the deteriorating security situation in Iraq as a call to reconfigure its foreign policy. Human security - rather than territorial boundaries, economic stability or an ideological battle of ideas - should be given top priority, he argues. Public health promotion used as a policy instrument would foster internal stability, produce positive social outcomes, be a valuable diplomatic tool and introduce new actors into policy formulation.
