"Not all health diplomacy is about health. I define health diplomacy as international aid or cooperation meant to promote health or that uses health programming to promote non-health-related foreign aims. While philanthropic organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been increasingly involved in global health, I focus on health diplomacy as practiced by states as a first step in investigating this topic.

States select among a wide array of options in formatting their health diplomacy, from engagement with global intergovernmental organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) to bilateral aid calibrated to support existing foreign investments. The increased pace of pandemics in the twenty-first century has placed states’ choices in executing health diplomacy into sharp relief. The nature of pandemics requires international cooperation for mitigation and containment. But pandemics also create opportunities for states to pursue foreign policy goals that primarily serve their national interest rather than serving global health."

2020 I Fazal

Experts Discuss Health Diplomacy

Prof. Dani Filc, Full Professor
Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev