Dr Clare Wenham1
1London School of Economics, United Kingdom
Biography:
Clare Wenham is Associate Professor of Global Health Policy at LSE
Abstract:
Sovereignty has, to date, been considered an analytical given in global health, and it is often used as an excuse for a state’s lack of compliance with the norms of global health governance, without further consideration. However, as this paper will show, sovereignty is not exogenous to the system of global health, but it finds a new meaning in this context, which is produced through interaction between states and non-state actors at the international and global levels.
Through empirical analysis of states’ sovereignty claims in 10 years’ worth of international fora, this paper shows the dynamism of sovereignty, and when states embody the ideals of global health governance, and when they prioritise their sovereign demands. Through this, a more considered understanding of sovereignty will be shown, depending on context, allowing states to reinterpret what sovereignty means to them in global health. Moreover, this paper makes broader contributions to theory concerning sovereignty, in that to date sovereignty literature has been too static in its understanding. Understanding this dynamism is vital to better bilateral, multilateral and global interactions.