cordons sanitaires

Noun

cordon sanitaire (plural cordons sanitaires)

1. (public health) A barrier (physical or administrative) to prevent the spread of disease.
   • In accordance with their recommendation, the French Ministry drew a cordon sanitaire round the Spanish frontier. The plague gradually died away with the colder weather of the winter; but the French Ministry did not withdraw the troops who composed the cordon sanitaire.1879, Sir Spencer Walpole, A History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1815, page 327
2. (broadly) Any barrier to the spread of anything deemed undesirable.
   • The alternative for such a policy was the isolation of Russia and the construction of a cordon sanitaire, in order to contain Bolshevism in the present area.1992, Peter Van Ham, Western Doctrines on East-West Trade: Theory, History and Policy, Springer, →ISBN, page 111