Health and foreign policy.

In the past decade, health issues have become more prominent in foreign polic cies of countries.1–6 Health challenges now feature in national security stratec gies, appear regularly on the agenda of meetings of leading economic powers, affect the bilateral and regional political relationships between developed and developing countries, and influence strategies for United Nations reform. Although health has long been a foreign policy concern, such prominence is historically unprecedented. The transformation in the relationc ship between health and foreign policy has resulted both from specific events and more general trends in world polic tics. The worsening of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, threats from emerging and recemerging infectious diseases (e.g. SARS, avian influenza), fears about bioterrorism, and controversies inc volving trade and health (e.g. TRIPS and access to medicines) have forced foreigncpolicycmakers to grapple with issues and principles of public health. Globalization has also rendered foreign policy more relevant to health because the line between domestic and foreign impact has been blurred or obliterated, forcing countries to engage in foreign policy action across a greater range of health issues. Developed and developing counc tries now find health increasingly imporc tant to the fulfilment of the governance functions traditionally served by foreign policy — security, national economic wellcbeing, political and economic development of other nations, and the protection of human dignity. This realc ity produces the need for countries to pursue health as a foreign policy concern in its fullest sense. The development of health as foreign policy contrasts with health’s historical place in foreign policy as a “mere humanitarian” endeavour subordinate to the national interests of survival, security, power, and influence. The new relationship between health and foreign policy has significant implications for both policy areas. There