COVID-19, the UN, and Dispersed Global Health Security

The response to COVID-19 demonstrates an inclusive and dispersed form of global health security that is less reliant on the UN Security Council or the World Health Organization (WHO). 

While WHO remains central to fighting the pandemic, the dispersed global health security addressing the crisis is inclusive of the wider UN system, civil society, and epistemic communities in global health. 

Writing in the special issue of the journal Ethics and International Issues on “The United Nations at Seventy-Five: Looking Back to Look Forward,” SOPHIE HARMAN, in an essay titled “COVID-19, the UN, and Dispersed Global Health Security” argues that instead of facing crisis or criticism like WHO, this inclusive and dispersed form of global health security provides mechanisms of resilience and support to the UN at the height of global political tensions surrounding COVID-19.

Harman, S. (2020). COVID-19, the UN, and Dispersed Global Health Security. Ethics & International Affairs, 34(3), 373-378. doi:10.1017/S0892679420000398