A New U.S. Foreign Policy for Global Health

"The United States should, at long last, treat pandemics and global warming as [major] threats to its national interests-especially the vital interests of security and economic power," argues Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Global Health and Cybersecurity David P. Fidler. The United States needs "a new foreign policy on global health that protects those national interests through pandemic preparedness and climate adaptation strategies."

A New U.S. Foreign Policy for Global Health: COVID-19 and Climate Change Demand a Different Approach examines U.S. global health policy before and during COVID-19 to identify why the United States failed "to protect vital national interests, develop public and global health capabilities, and maintain domestic and global solidarity against health threats."

"The United States," Fidler writes, "was unprepared for a pandemic and is not ready for climate change-despite global health involvement, warnings about both threats, and no competition from authoritarian countries for global health leadership."

Warning that "U.S. foreign policy on global health faces the worst domestic and international conditions it has ever encountered," Fidler argues that a "new strategy for U.S. foreign policy on global health is needed to address the security, capability, and solidarity failures that COVID-19 and climate change have exposed."