Soft war: Geopolitics and financing at the WHO

At this year’s World Health Assembly, geopolitics and financing will be at the forefront of many discussions and difficult decisions ahead. This has been precipitated by the United States of America’s stated intention to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) and global health more generally, raising existential questions and triggering a crisis at the WHO. Yet all of this has happened before. Understanding how the Organization, health diplomacy, and the broader constituencies behind them have negotiated crisis and change since the WHO’s founding in 1945 illuminates the challenges facing global health today – and offers clarifying insight into the road ahead.

This event will shed light on how geopolitics and financing have challenged WHO’s role and work at various critical points in its history and how this has impacted not only the organisation but global health in general. It will also explore what lessons we can draw for today’s challenges.