Document Type

Graduate Syllabus

Date

Fall 2026

School

Diplomacy

Course Number

DIPL 6276

Course Description

Public health challenges — pandemic influenza, HIV and AIDS, COVID-19, obesity, neglected diseases, tobacco use, climate change, and underperforming health systems — increasingly shape and are shaped by the political, economic, and social dimensions of globalization. At the same time, international rules that fall outside the traditional health sphere, such as those governing intellectual property, trade, and greenhouse gas emissions, can have profound consequences for human health. Strong national health systems remain essential, but the reach of health threats and the capacity to respond often extend beyond any single state and beyond the health sector itself. Translating development goals into measurable improvements in health outcomes therefore depends on effective global health governance: the use of formal and informal institutions, rules, and processes by states, intergovernmental organizations, and non-state actors to address health challenges that require cross-border collective action.

This course examines those challenges and the concepts, approaches, and institutions involved in addressing them. It asks: What is the current institutional architecture of global health? How well suited are existing institutions to twenty-first-century health challenges? Which tools and mechanisms have succeeded or failed in governing transborder health threats, and why? Where are the major governance gaps? And to what extent have ideological and geopolitical factors shaped the landscape of global health governance? The thematic thrust is practical and policy-oriented rather than theoretical.

This is a fully online, asynchronous course delivered through Canvas. Learning takes place through assigned readings, recorded lectures, and structured discussion forums.

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