A disaster diplomacy perspective of acute public health events. (6th August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Whittaker, Charlie; Frühauf, Anna; Burthem, Samuel John; Parry, Rebecca Shoshanah; Kotikalapudi, Meghana; Liang, Yihui; Barker, Mary Moffett; Patel, Parth Rohit; Kelman, Ilan
• Other Names: Siddiqi Ayesha guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: Disasters. Volume 42(2018)Supplement 2
• Page Start: S173
• Page End: S195
• Publication Date: 2018-08-06
• Subjects: China -- Cuba -- health diplomacy -- medical diplomacy -- polio -- public health -- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) -- vaccine diplomacy; Disasters -- Periodicals; Disaster relief -- Periodicals; Emergency management -- Periodicals; 363.34
• DOI: 10.1111/disa.12306
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0361-3666

Abstract

Abstract : Conceptions of acute public health events typically assume that they are tackled exclusively or principally through technical and medical solutions. Yet health and politics are inexorably linked. To better understand this link, this paper adopts a disaster diplomacy perspective for analysing and assessing the impacts of acute public health events on diplomatic outcomes. Two gaps in understanding disaster‐health‐politics connections are addressed: (i) how health interventions can impact diplomatic endeavours, especially for (ii) acute public health events. Three diverse case studies are interpreted from a disaster diplomacy perspective: Cuba's medical diplomacy, China and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and polio vaccination. Disaster diplomacy permits deeper investigation and analysis of connections amongst health, disaster, and diplomatic activities by viewing efforts on acute public health events as being political through disaster risk reduction (beforehand) and disaster response (during and afterwards). Understanding improves how health interventions affect diplomacy and on disaster diplomacy's limitations.