scholarly journals China and the global search for health security: history, vaccines, and governance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daojiong Zha
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Global Search ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
History Of

AbstractChina is a key player, not just an actor, in the global search for health security. Reiteration of this point is useful for International Relations studies, which often portray China as a factor to contend with, especially given the background of the country as the first to report the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper adopts an analytical framework developed through a summary of routines in Chinese engagement in global health from a practitioner’s perspective: aid, interdependence, governance and knowledge. These are the core elements in a country’s pursuit of engagement with the rest of the world. After the introduction, the second section of the paper reviews contributions from China in the history of global plague control over the past century. The third section discusses structural issues affecting access to vaccines, which are essential for bringing COVID-19 under effective control. The fourth section identifies a number of challenges China is facing in global health governance. The final section offers a few concluding thoughts, reiterating the nature of interdependence in the global search for enhancement of health security.

scholarly journals President Donald Trump as global health’s displacement activity

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Harman ◽  
Sara E. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Global Health Security ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Displacement Activity ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThe United States presidential election of Donald Trump in 2016 was observed by global health commentators as posing dire consequences for the progress made in global health outcomes, governance, and financing. This article shares these concerns, however, we present a more nuanced picture of the global health governance progress narrative pre-Trump. We argue that Trump’s presidency is a displacement activity to which global health’s pre-existing inequalities and problems of global health security, financing, and reproductive health can be attributed. Unfettered access to sexual and reproductive rights, sustained financing of health system strengthening initiatives, affordable medicines and vaccines, and a human security-centred definition of global health security were already problematic shortfalls for global health governance. Trump no doubt exacerbates these concerns, however, to blame his presidency for failings in these areas ignores the issues that have been endemic to global health governance prior to his presidency. Instead of using Trump as a displacement activity, his presidency could be an opportunity to confront dependency on US financing model, the lack of a human-security centred definition of global health security, and the norm of restricting reproductive health. It is such engagement and confrontation with these issues that could see Trump’s presidency as being a catalyst for change rather than displacement as a means of preserving the uncomfortable status quo in global health. We make this argument by focusing on three specific areas of US-led global health governance: reproductive health and the ‘global gag rule’, health financing and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and pandemic preparedness and global health security.

Taiwan’s Participation in the World Organisation for Animal Health (oie): Modalities, Utility, and Challenges

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Vincent Rollet
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Global Health Security ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Health Security ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Related ◽  
World Organisation

Abstract This article explores the utility of membership in international organisations for states with specific status within the international community, focusing on Taiwan’s surprisingly neglected involvement in the World Organisation for Animal Health or oie (Office International des Épizooties). The paper shows that in addition to its contribution to the legitimisation of Taiwan’s identities, such participation has also enabled Taiwan to shape international norms in the field of animal health, increase international cooperation opportunities, strengthen domestic and global health security, and facilitate the trade of animal health-related products. Additionally, it has contributed to the domestic implementation of international animal health norms and helped increase the accountability of Taiwanese authorities in the domain of animal health management. Despite tremendous challenges, Taiwan still has plenty of opportunities to enhance its participation in global health governance through its membership in oie.

scholarly journals Alternative Global Health Security Indexes for Risk Analysis of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 3161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Lin Chang ◽  
Michael McAleer
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Global Health Security ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Timely Manner ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Global Epidemic ◽  
Optimal Weights ◽  
Highest Weight ◽  
History Of

Given the volume of research and discussion on the health, medical, economic, financial, political, and travel advisory aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, it is essential to enquire if an outbreak of the epidemic might have been anticipated, given the well-documented history of SARS and MERS, among other infectious diseases. If various issues directly related to health security risks could have been predicted accurately, public health and medical contingency plans might have been prepared and activated in advance of an epidemic such as COVID-19. This paper evaluates an important source of health security, the Global Health Security Index (2019), which provided data before the discovery of COVID-19 in December 2019. Therefore, it is possible to evaluate how countries might have been prepared for a global epidemic, or pandemic, and acted accordingly in an effective and timely manner. The GHS index numerical scores are calculated as the arithmetic (AM), geometric (GM), and harmonic (HM) means of six categories, where AM uses equal weights for each category. The GHS Index scores are regressed on the numerical score rankings of the six categories to check if the use of equal weights of 0.167 in the calculation of the GHS Index using AM is justified, with GM and HM providing a check of the robustness of the arithmetic mean. The highest weights are determined to be around 0.244–0.246, while the lowest weights are around 0.186–0.187 for AM. The ordinal GHS Index is regressed on the ordinal rankings of the six categories to check for the optimal weights in the calculation of the ordinal Global Health Security (GHS) Index, where the highest weight is 0.368, while the lowest is 0.142, so the estimated results are wider apart than for the numerical score rankings. Overall, Rapid Response and Detection and Reporting have the largest impacts on the GHS Index score, whereas Risk Environment and Prevention have the smallest effects. The quantitative and qualitative results are different when GM and HM are used.

Globalisation and the Politics of Global Health

2018 ◽  
pp. 36-58
Author(s):  
Matthew Sparke
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Health Politics ◽  
Political Economic

This chapter examines how the politics of global health have been shaped by globalisation. This means evaluating its effects on both the material level of political-economic integration and on the ideational level of political-cultural discourse. The former is conventionally tied through a focus on trade and travel to global public health security, and the latter is often associated with global humanitarian care. Going beyond this dualistic divide, however, this chapter argues that globalisation has spun a connective thread running through both regimes. This connective thread is the pro-market neo-liberal governance that sutures globalisation’s integrative and ideational dynamics with powerful binding implications for health. Due to these ties that bind, processes of neo-liberalisation deeply influence global health, creating global health vulnerabilities and problems through structural violence while also shaping and steering the delivery of global health responses. Global health governance remains influenced by other international and postcolonial health regimes that continue to inspire alternatives to the global expansion of neo-liberal norms. However, the same market forces that have made globalisation a synonym for processes of neo-liberalisation have also now become the dominant transnational influence shaping the ‘global’ in global health politics.

scholarly journals Rethinking the Infodemic: Global Health Security and Information Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
Dagmar Rychnovská
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Management ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Global Health Security ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Public Health Information

The discourse on the infodemic constructs the combination of the pandemic and disinformation as a new source of insecurity on a global scale. How can we make sense – analytically and politically– of this newly politicized nexus of public health, information management, and global security? This article proposes approaching the phenomenon of the infodemic as an intersecting securitization of information disorder and health governance. Specifically, it argues that there are two distinct frames of security mobilized in the context of infodemic governance: information as a disease and information as a weapon. Drawing on literatures on global health and the emerging research on disinformation, the paper situates the two framings of the infodemic in broader discourses on the medicalization of security, and securitization of information disorder, respectively. The article critically reflects on each framing and offers some preliminary thoughts on how to approach the entanglements of health, security, and information disorder in contemporary global politics.

scholarly journals The population, its health and social sciences

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophy Bergenheim
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Public Health ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Final Section ◽  
History Of Public Health ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Approach

This commentary provides a glimpse into a conceptual history approach to the topic of public health. I focus primarily on the history of public health during the first half of the 20th century. I will also reflect on its entanglement with the social sciences in later times. The first two sections discuss three core elements of the concept of public health: the “public” or collective that the term refers to, “health”, and finally, “public health” as “health of a collective”. These elements are historical and political concepts, which means that they do not have a fixed definition, but need to be placed in their historical and political contexts. In the final section, I discuss some connections between social science and public health during the 20th century.

scholarly journals The evolution of the Nile regulatory regime: a history of cooperation and conflict

Water History ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Tayia ◽  
Antonio Ramos Barrado ◽  
Fernando Alonso Guinea
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Regulatory Regime ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Nile Basin ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
History Of ◽  
Annual Water ◽  
Major Factors

AbstractThe objective of this study is to trace the historical evolution of the present Nile Basin regulatory framework and examine its influence on the current interactions among Nile riparian states. This research adopts a case-study design, with in-depth qualitative analysis of the Nile Basin as an example of the complex transboundary relations over shared waters. It uses an analytical framework derived from the New Institutional Economics (NIE) to analyse the evolution of the institutional framework that has governed the Nile basin and how it affected the annual water share allocated to each riparian country. The study argues that the historical beliefs and social norms of the riparian societies have been among the major factors that influenced the cooperation attempts during the past century and determined their outcomes. Therefore, a prerequisite to develop sustainable cooperation is levelling the playing field by addressing the beliefs and norms that have prevented cooperation while identifying the beliefs that can support cooperation.

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