Alex de Waal

Alex de Waal is an anthropologist, researcher, and Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University. His scholarship has addressed famine, humanitarian policy, human rights, governance, and conflict in Africa. New Pandemics, Old Politics places recent public-health choices within two centuries of responses to cholera, influenza, HIV/AIDS, and anticipated new pathogens. Published by Polity, the book questions the dominance of martial metaphors and technology-first solutions, then argues for a more democratic and socially grounded approach. De Waal's historical comparisons extend his wider interest in how institutions frame emergencies and whose knowledge shapes policy.