The Governance of Pandemic Risks in East Asia Supported by the University of Duisburg-Essen, start-up funding for post-doc projects, 2009 Kerstin Lukner IN-EAST, Political Science, East Asian Politics [email protected] At the beginning of the new millennium East and Southeast Asia were hit hard by the outbreak of SARS and the avian influ- enza. Both virus diseases show high rates of morbidity and mortality among humans, as effective vaccines do not exist and the success of medical treatment has proven to be a matter of luck. Both diseases thus contain the potential risk of developing into uncontrollable global pandemics with incalculable consequences. Since more than 95 % of all recorded SARS and avian flu infections in humans have been ascribed to Asia, this research project focuses on the question of how selected governments in the region (PR China, Japan) have been reacting to this pandemic risk challenge. It scrutinizes whether impending pandemic outbreaks lead to an alteration in the strategies vis-à-vis these health risks and whether they initiate institutional change in the public health and safety sector. Avian influenza virus