Why International Relations and Global Public Health Need Each Other

The current COVID-19 global pandemic presents a clear illustration of the need for greater engagement between political science and international relations on the one hand and global health on the other. While this outbreak is the most high-profile example of the need for engagement between international relations and global health, it is far from the only one. It is impossible to understand the policy responses (or lack thereof) to HIV/AIDS, SARS, and H1N1 influenza, among others, without appreciating the political, social, and economic contexts in which these outbreaks occur and interact. Rather than offering a single vision for how this intellectual and academic engagement should occur, we present a number of potential avenues for engagement between the international relations theory and global health literatures and demonstrate why increased cross-fertilization between these literatures would both be academically enriching and improve our understanding of national and global policy processes. A stronger engagement between international relations and global health reminds us that health is inherently political and social, meaning that effectively understanding disease outbreaks and the policy responses to them necessarily goes beyond an understanding of biological sciences.