While the remit of this monograph focuses on the emergence of international health in Southeast Asia, India, and Sri Lanka, the dialectic between internationalization and regionalization was not unique to this region. In Africa, donor support for public health programs was typically funneled through national and colonial governments, whereas in Asia, multilateral agencies were reluctant to direct resources through local governments, preferring instead to operate through regional agencies. Between the 1950s and 1970s, there was a widespread apprehension across Southeast Asia, India, and Sri Lanka, that an overdependence on foreign aid would erode hard-won political independence. As a result, aid agencies preferred to work through regional initiatives. In doing so, they opened up a strategic intermediary space—a buffer zone that allowed decolonized Asian states to leverage international aid while insulating their domestic policies from donor overreach.