The Case For Global Health Diplomacy

Abstract

At the end of February, I had the pleasure of speaking about global health diplomacy at the Nursing Leadership in Global Health Symposium at Vanderbilt University. Nurses are one of the specialties that we support in the Frist Global Health Leaders program facilitated by Hope Through Healing Hands, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing peace by supporting health care services and education in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. Nurses, including the men and women I met at Vanderbilt, have an enormous opportunity to affect health and global health diplomacy. Indeed, everyone in the medical profession can play a crucial role in health diplomacy. Global Health Diplomacy And Foreign Policy For several years now I’ve been thinking about—and speaking about—global health diplomacy. The term started appearing around 2000 and has many definitions, representing the complexity of the issue itself. Diplomacy, at the simplest level, is a tool used in negotiating foreign policy. Health diplomacy is different, though. As a physician, the overall goal of health is clear: improve quality of life by improving health and meeting overall patient goals of care. As a diplomat and policymaker, the goal is more complicated. Foreign policy, in general, is a dance—a negotiation of shared goals and identification of conflicts between nations, always with inherent tension. For example, what we want for the government of Afghanistan may not align with their complex political and cultural ideologies.