The Power Shift in Global Health

This book argues that global health governance is being conducted in a nonpolar world, one in which nation states are competing to establish their spheres of influence on a global scale, what Parag Khanna in his book "The Second World" has called the geopolitical marketplace. The emerging economies and new power centers are not only using the existing focal institution in global health, the World Health Organization, but also creating and using informal institutions such as clubs and regional groups, as well as bilateral ties with southern countries to increase their own influence on global decision-making for health. The plurilateral and bilateral mechanisms, which operate outside the jurisdiction of the WHO, have moved decision-making out of the multilateral venue of the UN and away from the Western conception of cooperation through formal mechanisms. Alongside the use of new forums to achieve particular health objectives has been the reframing of health by governments as a key issue of foreign policy, thus bringing health from the technical low-priority 'realm, to a high-priority' concern of Ministries of Foreign and External Affairs. The 16 chapters of this volume each work to document and analyze this powershift from a variety of country and regional perspectives.