From sovereignty to solidarity: a renewed concept of global health for an era of complex interdependence

Abstract

The moment is ripe to revisit the idea of global health. Despite tens of billions of dollars spent over the past decade under the auspices of global health, 1 Institute for Health Metrics and EvaluationFinancing global health 2012: the end of the golden age? Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle2012 Google Scholar a consensus definition for this term remains elusive. 2 Koplan JP Bond TC Merson MH et al. for the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Executive BoardTowards a common definition of global health. Lancet. 2009; 373: 1993-1995 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (820) Google Scholar , 3 Fried LP Bentley ME Buekens P et al. Global health is public health. Lancet. 2010; 375: 535-537 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (117) Google Scholar , 4 McInnes C Lee K Global health and international relations. Polity, Cambridge2012 Google Scholar , 5 Brown TM Cueto M Fee E The World Health Organization and the transition from “international” to “global” public health. Am J Public Health. 2006; 96: 62-72 Crossref PubMed Scopus (445) Google Scholar Yet the way in which we understand global health critically shapes not only which and whose problems we tackle, but also the way in which we raise and allocate funds, communicate with the public and policy makers, educate students, and design the global institutions that govern our collective efforts to protect and promote public health worldwide. EU's external borders: what is the role for global health law?Public health and human rights do not end at national borders. And yet, when thousands of refugees were drowning in the Mediterranean, some northern countries of the European Union (EU) hid behind the excuse that these continuing tragedies were at the EU's external borders, beyond their sovereign territory. Full-Text PDF On global health: stick to sovereigntyDiscussing the concept of global health, Julio Frenk and colleagues (Jan 4, p 94)1 oppose sovereignty and solidarity arguing that a global society might be a substitute for state sovereignty.1 We are not, however, living in a global village but in a world where the distribution of economic, political, and military power is extremely inequitable. The WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health famously stated that “inequities are killing people on a grand scale.”2 Full-Text PDF