Health Diplomacy in the CARICOM Region

In today's globalized world, with high connectivity and interdependence on other nations, the germs can cross borders within minutes making the Caribbean region more vulnerable. The paramount role of health diplomacy is increasing day by day, especially with the recent COVID-19 pandemic. In 2007, the Caribbean region formulated the "Port of Spain Summit Declaration”, a unique, comprehensive policy addressing chronic non-communicable diseases with a high-level commitment from the head of the states. Health diplomacy is not something new to the region as it has developed many regional initiatives for collective action against HIV/AIDS, other infectious diseases in the past decades but never had a dedicated centre to further the concept or conduct more research. This chapter examines various challenges in the region and emphasizes the region's role in addressing its needs on global platforms to negotiate for more assistance and robust policies to safeguard peace, health, and development. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Improving Pandemic Response With Military Tools: Using Enhanced Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic rocked the world, spurring the collapse of national commerce, international trade, education, air travel, and tourism. The global economy has been brought to its knees by the rapid spread of infection, resulting in widespread illness and many deaths. The rise in nationalism and isolationism, ethnic strife, disingenuous governmental reporting, lockdowns, travel restrictions, and vaccination misinformation have caused further problems. This has brought into stark relief the need for improved disease surveillance and health protection measures. National and international agencies that should have provided earlier warning in fact failed to do so. A robust global health network that includes enhanced cooperation with Military Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) assets in conjunction with the existing international, governmental, and nongovernment medical intelligence networks and allies and partners would provide exceptional forward-looking and early-warning and is a proactive step toward making our future safe. This will be achieved both by surveilling populations for new biothreats, fusing and disseminating data, and then reaching out to target assistance to reduce disease spread in unprotected populations.

Transformations of Medical and Vaccine Diplomacies in the COVID-19 Era

The pandemic has produced the global COVID-19 vaccine market with various stakeholders acting in their economic self-interest. At the same time, some governments use vaccines for pursuing national interests and expanding their international influence. Using scientific works on the topic and documents from WHO, GAVI, WTO, IMF, government documents and think tank reports, the author analyzes vaccine diplomacy as a branch of medical diplomacy and identifies changes that occur under pandemic impact. The article examines the current policy of China, as it has achieved the most notable success in medical services export, primarily to developing countries, and Chinese pharmaceutical companies play a prominent role in the global vaccine market. It raises serious concerns of the West, which accuses Beijing of using coronacrisis to establish a new (China-centric) world order. It is concluded that government capacity to protect public health and control epidemic spread is among the significant criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of State policy, and its own vaccine industry begins to be regarded as an important element of national security. There is also a considerable increase in the role of healthcare in foreign policy of a number of States using medical and vaccine diplomacies as a means of achieving political goals. COVID-19 vaccines are becoming a strategic asset that affects the country's position on the world stage and generates a new field of geopolitical rivalry. But at the same time, vaccine diplomacy could serve as a dialogue platform in cases when interstate relations are in a deep crisis. And it may lead to awareness of the need to train specialists in the field of medical diplomacy.

Ethical Failures of the COVID-19 Pandemic Response

This book draws attention to the non-biological—political, economic, societal and cultural—variables shaping both the emergence and persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global response to it, with a particular focus on political decisionmakers' role in the domestic and international politics surrounding the process of the pandemic. The book identifies the strategic and underlying ethical failures of decision making, using a process-tracing approach to reconstruct considerations, decisions and actions by key leaders—interested in thus weaving a global narrative of the response. The author highlights key speech acts, and interprets the causal implications embedded in a chronological and contextualised appraisal of events, statements and public health measures. The book further discusses the normative ethics of pandemic response, and presents lessons drawn from the present experience. It also offers a normative analysis taking into consideration pre-pandemic guidelines for response, including in the literature of public health ethics and pandemic preparedness plans. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Health and Vaccine Diplomacy in Russia's Foreign Policy

This chapter deals with the Russian Federation's management of the COVID-19 crisis in its foreign policy through health diplomacy. First, it looks at Russia's strategy globally and then focuses on two case studies: Belarus and Italy. As shown by the analysis of the case studies, there have been at least two main phases in Russia's external response to the pandemic. In the first phase, Russia used health diplomacy and helped other countries (e.g., Italy) struggling with the pandemic, seeking to rebrand itself as a benevolent actor and generous actor. In the second phase, Russia took part in the vaccine race. As a result, it became the first country to register a COVID-19 vaccine—despite accusations of disregarding scientific standards—to boast its scientific excellence internationally and boost national pride among its citizens. Finally, the chapter acknowledges the spillovers of Russia's invasion of Ukraine for its health and vaccine diplomacy. Indeed, Russian companies and institutions must face the consequences of the war, which can further dilapidate the reputation built in the first phase of COVID-19 spreading. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Digital Technology Practices and Vaccine Campaign in Korea: International Perceptions on Health Diplomacy amid COVID-19 Crisis

The purpose of this study is two-fold: first, to discuss the concept of health diplomacy and the Korean government's response to contain the COVID-19 pandemic;second, to assess and compare assumptions of variances about foreigners' perceptions of how Korea is leveraging digital technology in battling the coronavirus spread, and its vaccine campaign;through the lenses of Chinese, Filipino, and Pakistani foreign nationals who are currently living in Korea. A total of 219 foreigners responded to the survey. The collected data were analyzed as percentages, mean averages, t-test, and ANOVA for statistical analysis. Results show that Korea is utilizing its digital technology practices and vaccine campaign in battling the pandemic through efforts of health diplomacy. ANOVA indicated significant results and assumptions of variance across three ethnic groups showing the Pakistani population had higher mean scores than the Chinese and Filipino about Korea's health diplomacy during the pandemic. This study contributes to the literature on Korea's digital technology practices and vaccine campaigns amidst the COVID-19 pandemic by promoting its image through health diplomacy efforts. It projects the country's soft image on a global scale, to save the lives of locals and foreign nationals, by providing insights into health diplomacy in Korea. © 2022 World Association for Triple helix and Future strategy studies. All rights reserved.

Reforming Global Health Diplomacy in the Wake of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted critical shortcomings of global health diplomacy. Previously negotiated surveillance and detection systems proved inadequate in ensuring timely notice of the outbreak of a disease that has already killed an estimated 15 million people worldwide and erased trillions of dollars in lost economic activity, with particularly harmful effects in least developed countries. While nations have negotiated health issues for centuries, the definition and objectives of health diplomacy have never been clearly established. This chapter addresses how nations can reform their own preparation to engage in health diplomacy and poses the following questions: is diplomacy a tool to advance global health or is global health an instrument diplomacy can use to advance national interests? How can health diplomacy be reformed to serve both these approaches better? How should governments seek scientific advice to support their international engagements on global health? What are best practices for staffing international health negotiations that can best serve the interests of both large and small states? © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Health diplomacy in Africa-opportunities post-COVID-19.

For the last seventy years, Africa has suffered a disease burden that is steadily growing in scale and complexity. Despite that, health development in the continent has continued to rely on donors´ packages since decolonization. The last decade, however, has marked some health-related achievements on the continent such as the development of the Africa Health Strategy 2016-2030, the establishment of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the launch of The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and most recently the African Medicines Agency (AMA). These developments and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance and the opportunities of practicing Global Health Diplomacy on the continent. Home to 27% of the world´s countries, Africa has a tremendous global voting power which makes global health diplomacy an unequivocally effective soft power tool to achieve "The Africa we want". In this paper, we will expand on the importance of Global Health Diplomacy (GHD) practice in Africa as a soft power tool, illustrate the COVID-19 response in the continent championed by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) as a case study, and offer some recommendations to sustain and strengthen GHD´s role in the continent.

Digital Vaccine Passports and digital health diplomacy: an online Model WHO simulation.

In the wake of COVID -19, several nations have sought to implement digital vaccine passports (DVPs) to enable the resumption of international travel. Comprising a minimum dataset for each unique individual, DVPs have the makings of a global electronic health record, broaching key issues involved in building a global digital health ecosystem. Debate simulations offer a safe, interactive space to foster participatory policy discussions for advancing digital health diplomacy. This study used an online simulation of a Model World Health Assembly to critically analyse the sociotechnical issues associated with the global implementation of DVPs, and to generate useful insights and questions about the role of diplomacy in global digital health. The debate arguments addressed and provided insights into the technological, scientific, ethical, legal, policy & societal aspects of DVPs. Reflecting on the simulation, we discuss its opportunities and challenges for the digitalization, decolonization, decentralization, and democratisation of participatory policymaking.

Pandemics, health diplomacy, and peacebuilding 1

The articles in this special issue address such questions as: How do states approach global health issues? How have they utilized health diplomacy and for what purposes? What are the principal challenges? How do pandemics affect conflict, and vice versa? Has health diplomacy effectively addressed global health concerns particularly in conflict-torn societies? This special issue contributes to our understanding of pandemics, health diplomacy, and peace by highlighting issues associated with responses to global health issues and health diplomacy. The articles offer novel perspectives for analyzing the prospects for global health and security. © The Author(s) 2023.

Perceived Motives of Public Diplomacy Influence Foreign Public Opinion.

Although many countries engage in public diplomacy, we know relatively little about the conditions under which their efforts create foreign support for their desired policy outcomes. Drawing on the psychological theory of "insincerity aversion," we argue that the positive effects of public diplomacy on foreign public opinion are attenuated and potentially even eliminated when foreign citizens become suspicious about possible hidden motives. To test this theory, we fielded a survey experiment involving divergent media frames of a real Russian medical donation to the U.S. early in the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that an adapted news article excerpt describing Russia's donation as genuine can decrease American citizens' support for sanctions on Russia. However, exposing respondents to information suggesting that Russia had political motivations for their donation is enough to cancel out the positive effect. Our findings suggest theoretical implications for the literature on foreign public opinion in international relations, particularly about the circumstances under which countries can manipulate the attitudes of other countries' citizens. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11109-022-09849-4.

Reimagining diaspora diplomacy during the COVID-19 crisis in India.

Diasporas are organized groups motivated by common cultural, ideological, political and religious values and common concerns for their countries of origin. Diaspora diplomacy has gained prominence worldwide, particularly in India, spurred by harrowing images of deaths and devastation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A new generation of diaspora professionals modeled as social entrepreneurs uses collaborative and non-profit models to establish relationships with their counterparts to facilitate medical services and research. Teleradiology and telepsychiatry facilitate communication between diaspora members and their counterparts. We propose a common telehealth platform to standardize advice given by the Indian diaspora in the Global North as protocols change rapidly in acute pandemics. Consideration should be given to the well-known digital divide in India and other low- and middle-income countries. We advocate for diaspora members to train themselves in the art of global health diplomacy, to promote transparency and accountability in the collection of funds and a mandatory provision of outcome measurement by independent monitors rather than through social media. In the long run, Indian-Americans should play an active role in strengthening the domain of public health, which has historically been neglected in India, by focusing on the country's long-term infrastructure needs. The lessons learned from various diaspora efforts should be independently evaluated and recorded as best practice for future pandemics and humanitarian crises.

Chinese and Indian COVID-19 Vaccine Diplomacy during the Health Emergency Crisis

Health diplomacy has played a vital role worldwide during the coronavirus outbreak. One crucial mechanism in this regard has been "vaccine diplomacy," which describes country efforts to share COVID-19 vaccines. China and India are ahead of other countries in bilateral vaccine donations due to their South-South Cooperation policies. Looking forward, how and why are these two countries employing their vaccine diplomacy strategies? We compare the engagement of both in this field using a Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis framework. Our results suggest that neither is acting only for altruistic reasons, because economic and political interests are the main drivers behind their strategies.

Cambodia 2018-2021: From democracy to autocracy

The years between 2018 and 2021 continued a pattern for Cambodia of a rolling back of democracy, human rights, and civil liberties, and saw the completion of the transition from a multi-party illiberal democracy to a one-party, authoritarian state. As attacks against political opposition increased, and political space was progressively closed, most commentators agreed that Cambodia had transitioned from competitive to authoritarian hegemony. The global COVID-19 pandemic saw a marked contraction of the economy, and its ability to recover remains to be seen. Foreign relations with the US and EU, already seriously deteriorated by 2018, continued to decline, and dependence on China increased, bringing unease to nations in the region and further afield. Recognising growing dissatisfaction among the population, the ruling party took measures to secure future control through varying means, including some efforts to address corruption, widening patronage networks, and co-opting youth groups to the party. A cabinet reshuffle brought younger blood into key political positions, and health diplomacy due to the pandemic offered means for Cambodia to smooth over tense international relations. However, at the end of 2021, the Cambodian Prime Minister remained defiant of international opinion and pressure, and looks set to continue his authoritarian, politically violent, rule.

Chinese and Indian COVID-19 Vaccine Diplomacy during the Health Emergency Crisis

Health diplomacy has played a vital role worldwide during the coronavirus outbreak. One crucial mechanism in this regard has been "vaccine diplomacy,” which describes country efforts to share COVID-19 vaccines. China and India are ahead of other countries in bilateral vaccine donations due to their South-South Cooperation policies. Looking forward, how and why are these two countries employing their vaccine diplomacy strategies? We compare the engagement of both in this field using a Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis framework. Our results suggest that neither is acting only for altruistic reasons, because economic and political interests are the main drivers behind their strategies. © 2022, INSTBRASILEIRORELACOESINT. All rights reserved.

THE SILK ROUTE OF HEALTH AND CHINESE SOFT POWER IN THE LIGHT OF SARS-CoV-2

This article aims to explain the use of soft power by the People's Republic of China (PRC) by taking the so-called "panda diplomacy" and glob-al health diplomacy as examples. Using the deductive method and the sup-port of a theoretical apparatus based on the analysis of soft power by Chinese scholars, the authors discuss the strategies Beijing uses to "win the minds and hearts" of the international community and mitigate the perception of the "Chinese threat" generated by multiple factors, including the current pan-demic caused by sARs-Cov-2. The article concludes that through panda diplo-macy and global health diplomacy, the PRC has succeeded in these goals and is likely to continue to use its soft power to position itself as a great power in the 21st century.

A Bibliometric Analysis of COVID-19 Scientific Literature From the English-Speaking Caribbean.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global crisis and has affected the Caribbean islands, leading to significant health and socioeconomic consequences in this region. Efforts to mitigate the burden of this disease have led to an accelerated amount of research in the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC). This bibliometric analysis aimed to evaluate the COVID-19-related scientific literature from the ESC nations. A total of 175 articles were included and analyzed from an initial PubMed search (n = 638) for COVID-19-related scientific literature from the ESC nations published between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2022. Microsoft Excel 2016 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington) and the VOSviewer (version 1.6.18) were used to characterize countries, authorship, journals, affiliations, and keywords of the COVID-19-related articles. Trinidad and Tobago (38%), Jamaica (22%), Barbados (20%), and Grenada (15%) contributed to the greatest number of publications. The University of the West Indies (UWI) campuses in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados, and St. George's University in Grenada were the most prolific institutions. Srikanth Umakanthan from the UWI was the most prolific author. Cureus, SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine, and Frontiers in Public Health were the first three most productive journals; 59% of the 175 articles had either the first or last author affiliated with an institution in the ESC, and 19% of the articles were country-focused: Trinidad and Tobago (16/175), Jamaica (9/175), Barbados (5/175), and Antigua and Barbuda (2/175). Among the top themes of research, 27% were outbreak response and rearrangements, epidemiological studies (23%), clinical management (23%), and medical education (13%). Over the last two years, an interest stimulated by the pandemic has expanded the research in ESC countries. However, gaps in the knowledge exist, especially in the epidemiology of COVID-19 complications in the sub-populations of chronic non-communicable diseases, post-COVID syndrome, and the long-COVID syndrome in the region. Hence, there is enormous scope for more research across the region.

Transformations of Medical and Vaccine Diplomacies in the COVID-19 Era

The pandemic has produced the global COVID-19 vaccine market with various stakeholders acting in their economic self-interest. At the same time, some governments use vaccines for pursuing national interests and expanding their international influence. Us-ing scientific works on the topic and documents from WHO, GAVI, WTO, IMF, government documents and think tank reports, the author analyzes vaccine diplomacy as a branch of medical diplomacy and identifies changes that occur under pandemic impact. The article examines the current policy of China, as it has achieved the most notable success in medical services export, primarily to developing countries, and Chinese pharmaceutical companies play a prominent role in the global vaccine market. It raises serious concerns of the West, which accuses Beijing of using coronacrisis to establish a new (China-centric) world order. It is concluded that government capacity to protect public health and control epidemic spread is among the significant criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of State policy, and its own vaccine industry begins to be regarded as an important element of national security. There is also a considerable increase in the role of healthcare in foreign policy of a number of States using medical and vaccine diplomacies as a means of achieving political goals. COVID-19 vaccines are becoming a strategic asset that affects the country’s position on the world stage and generates a new field of geopolitical rivalry. But at the same time, vaccine diplomacy could serve as a dialogue platform in cases when interstate relations are in a deep crisis. And it may lead to awareness of the need to train specialists in the field of medical diplomacy. © 2022, MGIMO Universty Press. All rights reserved.

Analyzing GAVI the Vaccine Alliance as a Global Health Partnership Model: A Constructivist Analysis of the Global Health Crisis

The ongoing debate on the conceptual underpinnings of constructivism and global health partnerships (GHPs) in global health studies has a dimension that deserves closer attention. This paper attempts to draw attention to a few aspects of the debate using Finnemore's constructivist analysis. According to this study, global actors need to rethink their paradoxical notions of pandemic crisis survival in light of the growing demand for mobilizing diverse global health agents and the necessity of constructing complex GNPs to address challenges of international significance. A global response based on solidarity and multilateralism is the only way to effectively combat this pandemic. Against this backdrop, the article analyses this development through an ideational ontological case study of the GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance. This article contributes to the debate by explaining how the GAVI Alliance fostered global collaboration and can serve as a template for future GHPs.

The Rise and Fall of the US-China Health Relationship

US-China health cooperation reaches back to the signing of the bilateral Science and Technology Umbrella Agreement, their first agreement after normalization of diplomatic relations in 1979. Bilateral cooperation has shaped the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) and produced some of the world's finest epidemiological research over the last thirty years. US-China research and technical cooperation has covered the full range of health-related topics, with no area given more attention than research and technical cooperation on emerging infectious diseases. In the wake of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the United States ramped up the staff presence of its Center for Disease Control (CDC) in China. Although this changed in the Obama years, as China's epidemiological capacity developed rapidly, the dramatic shift occurred with the Trump administration, whose cuts, just as COVID-19 arose as the largest epidemiological threat to the world in a century, left only a skeleton staff in place, and the US government without eyes and ears on the ground. Nonetheless, there is a reservoir of mutual respect and willingness to cooperate among the health professionals in both countries. If there is political will, this could become the foundation for a next-phase bilateral health relationship.