January–February 2015
Article
Foreign Policy

Heroic Villains: Are Foreign Investors Problems or Solutions in the Ebola Crisis?

Format:Print

Abstract

For months, the news out of West Africa has been unrelentingly grim. As of early December, the devastating Ebola epidemic had infected a reported 17,942 people and killed 6,388, according to the World Health Organization (WHO); the actual toll, which would also account for unreported cases, is presumed to be even higher. Yet there have been glimpses of good news amid the tragedy, including some emanating from unlikely sources: multinational companies that play an outsized role in West Africa's economy. As the Ebola epidemic continues to rage, therefore, foreign investors such as Firestone and ArcelorMittal find themselves cast on both sides of a complicated, perennial debate. In the end, the threat of Ebola is so dire that the world community would be foolish not to deploy whatever lines of resistance are available. That includes the WHO, Doctors Without Borders, armies, volunteers -- and, yes, even rapacious extractive industries. Because the problem here is not the power of foreign firms. It is the weakness of local states. Adapted from the source document.