Strengthening Global Health Governance Through Foreign Policy: Assessing the Role of India

Interconnectedness and dependency are striking characteristics of globalizing world. This phenomenon is not merely limited to economic sphere rather has influenced almost every aspect of individual, society and the politics. With increasing interconnectedness, various issues such as environment, human security, migration, health, nuclear weapon etc. have become transnational in character. Among all these challenges, health issues and public health are one crucial aspect which was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic as well. Health issues being transnational in character demand for a collective effort at the global level. Thus, envisaging and analyzing the role of global health governance become imperative. This chapter puts forth an argument that global health governance could be an effective foreign policy instrument as it leads to twofold outcome; one, it will promote public health among nations and second, it would create a cooperative international regime to tackle the challenges related to health globally. During COVID-19 pandemic, such collective efforts were witnessed where countries around the world came together to address this major crisis. India was among those countries that stepped forward to tackle the challenges imposed by the pandemic. Global Health Governance has been an important agenda in India’s Foreign Policy. In the last few decades, India has acknowledged health diplomacy as crucial instrument to deal with the issues of public health globally. India is becoming proactive on this issue by adopting an approach based on cooperation, collaboration and consensus.