The unequal global HIV/AIDS burden must be considered in relation to the history of structural violence. Colonialism, detrimental effects of globalization and dubious economic policies have set the wider frame within which the vulnerability of many is determined. The pandemic clearly follows the fault lines of the past policies as a result of which it is especially the powerless who globally bear the most of the burden. And yet, despite widely acknowledging this, the current global policies that have addressed the pandemic have not been able to prevent unleashing structural violence of their own. Although this violence can be partially connected to the logic of profit prevalent within the pharmaceutical industry and to the existence of conflicting interests between States and different interest groups within the global governance networks of HIV/AIDS, this is not the whole story. Even when the global governance of HIV/AIDS is able to function according to the liberal public health rationale, certain marginalized lives are systematically neglected. This poses a question whether it is possible to address this pandemic at all without exclusion and annihilation. In this paper we will ponder this question by juxtaposing different theories of biopolitics to this problematic. We will especially consider whether the thanatopolitical outcomes of the current HIV/AIDS policies could be in principle avoided by ‘affirmative’ biopolitical praxis.
