Diplomatic Practice in the COVID-19 Era: are we witnessing the emergence of a "health" diplomacy?

Diplomatic Practice in the COVID-19 Era
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Diplomatic Practice in the COVID-19 Era
Diplomatic Practice in the COVID-19 Era
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Diplomatic Practice in the COVID-19 Era
Diplomacy is an old-age concept that has existed for as long as human civilization. In ancient times, envoys traveling facilitated frequent contact between neighboring civilizations while modern diplomacy is characterized by professional diplomatic services, international law, and embassies. Despite its long-lived existence, diplomacy has rarely taken health with the gravity it deserves up to until at the very least, the current COVID-19 pandemic the globe faces. The COVID-19 situation has brought the discussion on health diplomacy into the fold. In this case, health diplomacy refers to “international aid or cooperation that is meant to promote health or that uses health programming to promote non-health-related foreign aims” (Fazal, 2020, p. 1).
The discussion begins by stating the nation’s role during a pandemic. Onwards, a couple of dynamics are apparent in the quest to achieve a seamless level of international cooperation among states. Understanding these dynamics demands the articulation of the international theory and its four debates that offer an insight as to why there is a complex interdependence in an international organization. The next section will highlight the diplomacy and the application of soft power among countries that have managed to take control of the pandemic within their boundaries. Such countries provide the international community on how to approach this predicament. Health diplomacy appears to be an important aspect albeit theoretical and it appears that it would be challenging to integrate it internationally as different countries elicit different cultural dispositions and values as well as economic priorities that they would be reluctant to abandon.
The Role of the State during a Pandemic
In pandemic times, the primary role of the state is to ensure that their citizens’ physical and economic health is protected. State administrators aim to achieve this position through the implementation of regulations to guide their citizens and work with stakeholders such as Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs). These institutions are in a unique position where they can articulate various health issues to the public. This method is one dimension in which health diplomacy is practiced with the results of such actions increased information sharing as well as reduced transaction costs. An enhanced level of information sharing is a specific aim of the World Health Organization concerning its present International Health Regulations (Worsnop, 2017). On the other hand, countries cannot only employ health diplomacy in building goodwill and soft power but also in pursuing humanitarian aims. Nye (2004, p. 11) defined soft power as “the ability to get what you want through attraction rather coercion or payment.” This possibility was highly predicated upon a country’s “attractiveness of its culture, its domestic, political and social values, and the style and substance of its foreign policies” (W...