Replication Data for: International border restrictions during COVID-19 as global health security theater

During outbreaks of diseases like cholera, HIV/AIDS, H1N1, and Ebola, governments often impose international border restrictions (e.g. quarantines, entry restrictions, and import restrictions) that disrupt the economy without stopping spread. Most recently, during COVID-19, international travel restrictions were ubiquitous despite initial World Health Organization recommendations against such measures because of their limited public health benefit and potential for imposing a range of harms. Why did governments adopt these measures? This article argues and finds evidence that governments use international border restrictions as security theater: “measures that provide not security, but a sense of it.” Quantitative analysis of original data on states’ first border restrictions during the pandemic suggests that behavior was not just driven by the risk of COVID-19 spread. Instead, nationalist governments, which are likely to be attracted to policies associating disease with foreigners, were more likely to impose border restrictions, did so more quickly, and adopted domestic measures more slowly. A case study of the United States further illustrates the security theater logic. The findings imply that overcoming governments’ attraction to security theater could promote international cooperation during global health emergencies.