Militaries and global health: peace, conflict, and disaster response.

Many countries show a growing willingness to use militaries in support of global health efforts. This Series paper summarises the varied roles, responsibilities, and approaches of militaries in global health, drawing on examples and case studies across peacetime, conflict, and disaster response environments. Militaries have many capabilities applicable to global health, ranging from research, surveillance, and medical expertise to rapidly deployable, large-scale assets for logistics, transportation, and security.

The multiple meanings of global health governance: a call for conceptual clarity.

Background: The term global health governance (GHG) is now widely used, with over one thousand works published in the scholarly literature, almost all since 2002. Amid this rapid growth there is considerable variation in how the term is defined and applied, generating confusion as to the boundaries of the subject, the perceived problems in practice, and the goals to be achieved through institutional reform.

Methodology: This paper is based on the results of a separate scoping study of peer reviewed GHG research from 1990 onwards which undertook keyword searches of public health and social science databases.

The politics of medicine and the global governance of pandemic influenza.

While still significant, the 2009 H1N1 (A) influenza pandemic was generally viewed as comparatively mild in contrast to past influenza pandemics. Even so, the conventional response of many governments to protect their populations against the threat from the H1N1 virus was to ensure adequate vaccine production and/or access to supplies of vaccines and antiviral medications. In this article, I examine the influence of biomedical knowledge (and the professionals that wield it) in determining the acceptable and rational limits of influenza public policy from 1918 to today.

Framing global health: the governance challenge.

With the emergence of global health comes governance challenges which are equally global in nature. This article identifies some of the initial limitations in analyses of global health governance (GHG) before discussing the focus of this special supplement: the framing of global health issues and the manner in which this impacts upon GHG. Whilst not denying the importance of material factors (such as resources and institutional competencies), the article identifies how issues can be framed in different ways, thereby creating particular pathways of response which in turn affect the potential for and nature of GHG.

The securitisation of pandemic influenza: framing, security and public policy.

This article examines how pandemic influenza has been framed as a security issue, threatening the functioning of both state and society, and the policy responses to this framing. Pandemic influenza has long been recognised as a threat to human health. Despite this, for much of the twentieth century it was not recognised as a security threat.

Evidence-based medicine and the governance of pandemic influenza.

The conventional response of governments to protect their populations against the threat of influenza has been to ensure adequate vaccine production and/or access to supplies of vaccines and antiviral medications. This focus has, in turn, shaped the global governance structures around pandemic influenza, with collective efforts centred on facilitating virus sharing, maintaining and increasing vaccine production, and ensuring access to pharmaceuticals - responses that remain unattainable for many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the short to medium term. This paper argues that this emphasis on pharmacological responses reflects a particular view of biomedicine that pays inadequate attention to the weak capacity of many health systems.

Changing perceptions: of pandemic influenza and public health responses.

According to the latest World Bank estimates, over the past decade some US $4.3 billion has been pledged by governments to combat the threat of pandemic influenza. Presidents, prime ministers, and even dictators the world over have been keen to demonstrate their commitment to tackling this disease, but this has not always been the case.

A public health emergency of international concern? Response to a proposal to apply the International Health Regulations to antimicrobial resistance.

Adam Kamradt-Scott critiques a proposal to apply the International Health Regulations (IHR) to the global health threat of antimicrobial resistance.

The evolving WHO: implications for global health security.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is central to the international community's efforts to control infectious disease outbreaks. In recent years, however, the Organization's powers have undergone substantial revision following a series of interconnected global events including the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, the revised International Health Regulations, the emergence and spread of avian influenza, and more recently, the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic. This paper explores how the WHO's role, authority and autonomy have been shaped and re-shaped, and examines what this may mean for the future of global health security.