Development studies (original) (raw)

Rebels, vigilantes and mavericks: heterodox actors in global health governance

European Journal of International Relations, 2023

COVID-19 has exposed profound governance challenges that demand more diverse and creative approaches to global health governance moving forward. This article works towards such a pluralization of the field by foregrounding the vital role played by heterodox actors during the pandemic. Heterodox global health actors are backgrounded actors who improve health in different parts of the world, but who remain politically marginalized-and epistemically invisibilized-because they depart in crucial respects from the liberal orthodoxy pervading the field of global health governance. The article analytically foregrounds those heterodox actors through an architectural inversion-a relational approach to the study of global health governance that builds upon recent methodological insights from postcolonial studies, infrastructure studies, and science and technology studies. The article then harnesses that methodological approach to empirically investigate the COVID-19 activities of three different heterodox actors: rebel groups providing public health in the borderlands of Myanmar, a women's vigilante movement stitching face masks in the Czech Republic, and a maverick scientific platform for the international sharing of viral sequence data. Performing that architectural inversion begins to loosen the dominance of the liberal episteme within the practice and study of global health governance. It further visibilizes how that field is continually

The evolution, etiology and eventualities of the global health security regime

2010

BACKGROUND: Attention to global health security governance is more important now than ever before. Scientists predict that a possible influenza pandemic could affect 1.5 billion people, cause up to 150 million deaths and leave US$3 trillion in economic damages. A public health emergency in one country is now only hours away from affecting many others. METHODS: Using regime analysis from political science, the principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures by which states govern health security are examined in the historical context of their punctuated evolution. This methodology illuminates the catalytic agents of change, distributional consequences and possible future orders that can help to better inform progress in this area. FINDINGS: Four periods of global health security governance are identified. The first is characterized by unilateral quarantine regulations (1377-1851), the second by multiple sanitary conferences (1851-92), the third by several international sanitary conventions and international health organizations (1892-1946) and the fourth by the hegemonic leadership of the World Health Organization (1946-????). This final regime, like others before it, is challenged by globalization (e.g. limitations of the new International Health Regulations), changing diplomacy (e.g. proliferation of global health security organizations), new tools (e.g. global health law, human rights and health diplomacy) and shock-activated vulnerabilities (e.g. bioterrorism and avian/swine influenza). This understanding, in turn, allows us to appreciate the impact of this evolving regime on class, race and gender, as well as to consider four possible future configurations of power, including greater authority for the World Health Organization, a concert of powers, developing countries and civil society organizations. CONCLUSIONS: This regime analysis allows us to understand the evolution, etiology and eventualities of the global health security regime, which is essential for national and international health policymakers, practitioners and academics to know where and how to act effectively in preparation for tomorrow's challenges.

Pace International Law Review Pace International Law Review Volume 33 Issue 2 Spring 2021 Article 2

The emergence and quick spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the focus and dynamics of the debates about global health, international law, and policy. This shift has overshadowed many of the other controversies in the international sphere. It has also highlighted the tensions that often exist in international affairs-especially in understanding the place and purpose of international institutions, vis-à-vis states, in the general schema of public international law. Central to the international response to the current pandemic is the World Health Organization (WHO)-a treaty-based organization charged with the overarching mandate of ensuring "the highest possible level of health" for all peoples. 1 Interestingly, the WHO has also become entangled in a foreign policy spat between China and the United States of America. This work explores the public international law aspects of the

COVID-19 Pandemic, the World Health Organization, and Global Health Policy

Social Science Research Network, 2021

The emergence and quick spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the focus and dynamics of the debates about global health, international law, and policy. This shift has overshadowed many of the other controversies in the international sphere. It has also highlighted the tensions that often exist in international affairs—especially in understanding the place and purpose of international institutions, vis-à-vis states, in the general schema of public international law. Central to the international response to the current pandemic is the World Health Organization (WHO)—a treaty-based organization charged with the overarching mandate of ensuring “the highest possible level of health” for all people. Interestingly, the WHO has also become entangled in a foreign policy spat between China and the United States of America. This work explores the public international law aspects of the WHO and why we should focus on its primary policy mandate and avoid unduly heaving the institution into perennial strategic policy games of states. It argues against turning such an illustrious institution, charged with a peculiar mandate, into an arena of zero-sum competitions amongst states. The hope is that this paper will provide crucial insights and assist legal and policy experts in understanding the organization, insulating it from unnecessary strategic games of powerful states, and ensuring the continued and effective delivery of global health policy2 through the WHO.

Lurching from Complacency to Panic in the Fight against Dangerous Microbes: A Blueprint for a Common Secure Future †

Emory law journal, 2018

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 339 I. SHORT-SIGHTED POLICIES: UNDERESTIMATING THE THREAT ............................................................................................... 342 A. Drivers of Disease ..................................................................... 345 1. Rising Populations, Megacities, and the Loss of Natural Habitats ............................................................................... 346 2. Rapid Travel and Trade ....................................................... 347 3. Climate Change ................................................................... 348 4. Fragile States and Violent Conflict ..................................... 349 5. Antimicrobial Resistance ..................................................... 350 6. Ethnocentric Nationalistic Politics ...................................... 352 B. Underinvesting in Preparedness: The Economic Costs of E...

COVID-19 Salgını ve Bulaşıcı Hastalıkların Yarattığı Küresel Krizlerle Mücadelede Uluslararası Hukuk

Istanbul Hukuk Mecmuası, 2020

2019’un sonlarında ortaya çıkan COVID-19 salgını tüm dünyayı sarsmaya devam etmektedir. Salgın bu zamana kadar yaşanan can kayıplarının yanı sıra sağlık, ekonomi, ticaret ve seyahat gibi birçok alanda son yüzyılın belki de en sarsıcı tahribatlarından birine sebep olmuştur. Salgının büyük bir hızla yayılışı, başta Dünya Sağlık Örgütü (DSÖ) olmak üzere küresel ölçekte etkili bir işbirliği ve koordinasyon sağlaması beklenen mekanizmaların rollerini gündeme getirmiştir. Bu makalenin amacı, uluslararası hukukta COVID-19 salgını ve bulaşıcı hastalıkların yarattığı küresel krizlerle mücadele yönetimine ilişkin kurumsal mekanizmaların ve düzenlemelerin değerlendirilmesidir. İlk bölümde DSÖ’nün yapısı ve düzenlemeleri ortaya konulmakta, özellikle 2005 tarihli Uluslararası Sağlık Tüzüğü’nün hükümleri detaylı bir şekilde incelenmektedir. İkinci bölümde DSÖ sisteminin COVID-19 salgını bağlamında nasıl bir işlev gösterdiği değerlendirilmekte ve mevcut eksikliklere yönelik çözüm önerileri sunulmaktadır. Son bölümde ise uluslararası sağlık hukukunun dışında kalan fakat COVID-19 salgını ve bulaşıcı hastalıkların sebep olduğu küresel krizler ile doğrudan bağlantılı olan uluslararası insan hakları hukuku, uluslararası ticaret hukuku ve uluslararası kolektif güvenlik sistemi alanlarındaki küresel yönetim mekanizmalarının oynadığı roller incelenmektedir. Tüm bu değerlendirmelerin neticesinde salgınlar gibi küresel sorunların etkili çözümünde uluslararası hukukun sahip olduğu kritik önem vurgulanmaktadır.

The multiple meanings of global health governance: a call for conceptual clarity

Globalization and health, 2014

The term global health governance (GHG) is now widely used, with over one thousand works published in the scholarly literature, almost all since 2002. Amid this rapid growth there is considerable variation in how the term is defined and applied, generating confusion as to the boundaries of the subject, the perceived problems in practice, and the goals to be achieved through institutional reform. This paper is based on the results of a separate scoping study of peer reviewed GHG research from 1990 onwards which undertook keyword searches of public health and social science databases. Additional works, notably books, book chapters and scholarly articles, not currently indexed, were identified through Web of Science citation searches. After removing duplicates, book reviews, commentaries and editorials, we reviewed the remaining 250 scholarly works in terms of how the concept of GHG is applied. More specifically, we identify what is claimed as constituting GHG, how it is problematised,...