Public Health and National Security: Reframing Global Health Governance in an Era of Geopolitical Competition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63539/schp.2026001Keywords:
Public Health, National Security, Global Health Governance, COVID-19 Pandemic, Vaccine Diplomacy, Health Supply-Chain Resilience, Geopolitical CompetitionAbstract
Public health and national security have merged and redefined health governance in the 21st century. Public health has emerged as a strategic issue of national and international security as a result of the current threats, such as emerging biotechnological risks, climate related health emergencies, antimicrobial resistance and pandemic. This study looks at the securitization of public health and its impact on global health governance in the context of growing geopolitical competition. The study utilizes a qualitative research design that entails a structured review of secondary literature, policy documents and comparison of a selection of institutional responses, and investigates the concept of health security, the concept of vaccine diplomacy, supply-chain resilience, technological competition and multilateral governance. The analysis indicates that health securitization has contributed to greater political will and the mobilization of resources, but it has also fostered greater institutional fragmentation, institutional competition, and unequal access to health resources. The study proposes that global health governance institutions need to be flexibly adapted to account for the importance of national security, but also include elements of multilateral cooperation, equity, transparency, and evidence-based public health policymaking.
Downloads
References
Albert, M. J. (2026). Security, left populism, and abolitionist politics in the age of neo-fascism. Globalizations, 23(4), 919–933. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2026.2652700
Chung, C. H. (2026). Redefining Digital Sovereignty: Infrastructural Dependence, Epistemic Asymmetry, and Governance Challenges in the Age of Big Tech. Technology and Regulation, 2026, 57–70.
Crawshaw, P., & Gray, J. (2026). Health Inequalities in Crisis Times: Questions for Global Health Governance. International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services, 56(2), 150–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/27551938251381110
Dalheimer, B., Bellemare, M. F., & Loughmiller, W. (2026). The Geopolitics of Food and Agriculture. Annual Review of Resource Economics. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-112624-010824
Estrin, S., & Hancké, B. (2026). How geopolitics, geoeconomics, and new organizational models are changing the world of business. Journal of International Business Policy, 9(2), 254–266. https://doi.org/10.1057/s42214-026-00246-w
Fernández, Ó., & Dijkstra, H. (2026). Global health security and pandemic preparedness: Europe’s leadership challenge. Bmj, 393. https://www.bmj.com/content/393/bmj-2026-090050.abstract
Howlader, M. R. (2026). US–China Rivalry and the Future of Global Security. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8508083/latest
Huang, F., Kotake, M., Kim, Y., Chen, L., Li, X., Daizen, T., & Xu, X. (2026). Rethinking internationalization of higher education under geopolitical shifts: Policy responses in China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the U.S., and the U.K. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322969.2026.2682909
Johnson, T., Abdool Karim, S., & Silva, D. S. (2026). Beyond Good and Bad: Rethinking Solidarity and Coercion in Public Health. The American Journal of Bioethics, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2026.2632018
Kaur, H. (2026). Development as Security: Economic Diversification and the Reconfiguration of National Security in Gulf States Under Vision-Driven Transformations. Saudi J. Humanities Soc Sci, 11(5), 206–213.
Lal, A. (2026). Towards a coherent global health architecture: Perspectives on integrating global health security and universal health coverage through diplomacy and governance reforms. Health Policy and Planning, 41(2), 162–175.
Li, J. (2026). Governing High-Risk Technologies in a Fragmented World: Geopolitical Tensions, Regulatory Gaps, and Institutional Barriers to Global Cooperation. Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 19(1), 113–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-025-00445-4
MacGregor, H., Leach, M., Desclaux, A., Parker, M., Grant, C., Wilkinson, A., Sams, K., & Sow, K. (2026). Pandemic futures, future preparedness: Diverse views in the wake of Covid-19. Journal of Biosocial Science, 58(2), 168–192.
MATOS, A. P., & GARRIDO, R. (2026). Editorial 39.1: Rethinking the Geopolitical Shifts and Security in the New Millennium. Revista Jurídica Portucalense, 1(39), i–xi.
Parepa, L.-A. (2026). The Governance-Statecraft Nexus in the Digital Age. In L.-A. Parepa (Ed.), Statecraft and Governance in Cyberspace (pp. 15–47). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-95-8341-6_2
Rüffin, N. V., Cramer, K. C., Mayer, M., & Nock, P. J. (2026). “Research Security” in Germany and the United States: Shifting Governance of Scientific Collaboration Under Geopolitical Pressure. Global Policy, 17(1), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.70103
Shen, H., Dai, X., Liu, C., & Li, H. (2026). Analysis of agro-product trade research characteristics under global uncertainty: Based on BERTopic model. Journal of Integrative Agriculture. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095311926001437
Stavropoulou, I. (2026). Are Multidimensional Environmental Changes Threats to National Security? An Analysis of National Security Policies of Schengen Area Countries. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:2054846
Su, R. (2026). Beyond Individual Privacy: A Layered Diagnostic Model for Analyzing Genetic Data Governance. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 54(2), 238–250.
Uma, P., Manisha, R., & Navyasree, K. (2026). The COVID-19 pandemic as a global stress test: Lessons for future health emergency preparedness. World, 5(2). https://wjpsronline.com/images/9029d0ddb3f13bf30a59ed2c3b81aae2.pdf
Warin, T. (2026). Geoeconomics: Navigating the New Global Landscape. https://warin.ca/geopolitics/Geoeconomics--Navigating-the-New-Global-Landscape.pdf
Xu, C., Zhang, J., & Zhang, Y. (2026). China’s New-Era Maritime Security: A Holistic National Security Framework. Paths Publishing Group. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wonAEQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Public+Health+as+National+Security:+Rethinking+Global+Health+Governance+in+an+Era+of+Geopolitical+Competition&ots=SKfa9qTtZl&sig=5K2QR64gfc92sHz09Oc0kybLFrg
Zaidi, S., Habib, S. S., Shoaib, A., Shah, Z., Blanchet, K., Jouhad, R., Palmer, N., Ridde, V., & Witter, S. (2026). Global Health Initiatives and Universal Health Coverage in Pakistan‐Aligned for the Future? The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 41(1), 156–170. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.70038
Żuk, P., & Żuk, P. (2026). Healthy nation body, foreign viruses and border control: Health bordering and biopolitics in the Polish context. Mobilities, 21(3), 642–667. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2025.2581040
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr. Syed Rizwan Haider Bukhari (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Chat with us