• Rebecca Katz, Sarah Kornblet, Grace Arnold, Eric Lief, and Julie E Fischer.
• George Washington University, Stimson Global Health Security Program, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
• Milbank Q. 2011 Sep 1;89(3):503-23.

ContextAccelerated globalization has produced obvious changes in diplomatic purposes and practices. Health issues have become increasingly preeminent in the evolving global diplomacy agenda. More leaders in academia and policy are thinking about how to structure and utilize diplomacy in pursuit of global health goals.MethodsIn this article, we describe the context, practice, and components of global health diplomacy, as applied operationally. We examine the foundations of various approaches to global health diplomacy, along with their implications for the policies shaping the international public health and foreign policy environments. Based on these observations, we propose a taxonomy for the subdiscipline.FindingsExpanding demands on global health diplomacy require a delicate combination of technical expertise, legal knowledge, and diplomatic skills that have not been systematically cultivated among either foreign service or global health professionals. Nonetheless, high expectations that global health initiatives will achieve development and diplomatic goals beyond the immediate technical objectives may be thwarted by this gap.ConclusionsThe deepening links between health and foreign policy require both the diplomatic and global health communities to reexamine the skills, comprehension, and resources necessary to achieve their mutual objectives.© 2011 Milbank Memorial Fund. Published by Wiley Periodicals Inc.

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