Global Health Diplomacy

Health issues have received unprecedented attention in global policy negotiations in
recent decades. Ongoing global health challenges, the pressing need to address global
health disparities, and recent calls for collaboration as part of the sustainable
development goals process have contributed to increasing consideration of the
intersection among global health, foreign policy, and diplomacy. These developments have
resulted in ‘global health diplomacy’. This chapter examines the links between health and
foreign policy and how global health diplomacy is employed to influence global politics. It
further investigates some of the instruments used in global health diplomacy, including
recommendations/resolutions, international agreements, and regulations. How and why
health issues reach the political agendas of foreign ministries are also examined. The
chapter then discusses how to evaluate and improve global health diplomacy processes
and raises research questions for advancing the academic study of global health
diplomacy and why it remains important.