Centre for Health and International Relations (CHAIR)

Welcome

'Welcome to the Centre for Health and International Relations (CHAIR). CHAIR was founded in 2003 in the belief that there are compelling reasons for linking health and international relations. It has now developed as part of a worldwide network of scholars working on the interface between health and IR. Please feel free to contact us to discuss our current research'.

~ Professor Colin McInnes, Director of CHAIR.

 

Latest News

'Competing Visions of Global Health Governance' - dissemination event, Chatham House, 11 May 2012

CHAIR and LSHTM, in collaboration with the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security and with the support of the BISA Global Health working group, are holding the first in a series of project dissemination events. The meeting is entitled 'Competing Visions of Global Health Governance', and is being hosted at Chatham House in London on 11 May 2012 (starting at 1pm). 
 
This event will present findings of the 4-year ERC-funded project, which takes an innovative approach to the study of global health governance, viewing the ways in which competing ideas about health impact upon policy making.

Four pressing contemporary global health issues will be examined at the Chatham House event: 

  • HIV/AIDS
  • access to medicines
  • tobacco control
  • pandemic influenza

We are also delighted that Professor Nick Drager has kindly agreed to provide an overview of the current global health governance landscape.

The working agenda is available to download (PDF). 
 
 

Postgraduate Conference, 11-12 July 2012

The BISA Global Health Postgraduate Network and CHAIR are delighted to announce an upcoming Discourses of Global Health conference that will take place on 11-12th July 2012 at the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University.

This is a postgraduate conference, to enable students to present their ideas and receive feedback from a friendly audience. We aim to bring together postgraduates from a broad range of disciplines to contemplate and discuss the current issues and theoretical debates in global health.

As a relatively new and multidisciplinary academic field, we hope that the conference will reflect a wide variety of approaches and perspectives. Accordingly, we welcome papers from any of the disciplines and fields which relate to global health, including (but not limited to): international relations, public health, public policy, security studies, geography, economics, anthropology, history and law. 

The call for papers for this event has now closed.

Please direct all queries to Clare Wenham.  

 

Professor Kelley Lee at University of Southern California

On 21 April 2012, Kelley Lee gave a lecture ('A Struggle for Relevance: The Future of the WHO') at the Institute of Global Health, USC as part of its renowned guest lecture series.

A brief synopsis of the presentation can be found here.

 

'Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: The Politics of Global Health' - E.H. Carr Special Seminar

On Thursday 15 March (6.30-8.00pm, Main Hall, International Politics Building, Aberystwyth University), given by the CHAIR team (Professor Colin McInnes, Dr Simon Rushton and Dr Owain D. Williams).

Why does global health matter to International Relations? Why do one-third of the world’s population lack access to essential medicines? Why is Bono more influential than David Cameron?

The Carr Special Seminars were inaugurated to provide a forum in which members of staff could present their research specifically to undergraduate audiences. 

The Powerpoint presentation which accompanied the seminar is available to download: 'Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: The Politics of Global Health' (PPT).  

 

Kelley Lee presented on a panel on 'Corporations and Global Health' at the inaugural conference of the BC Forum of the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research, 16-17 March in Vancouver.

In June 2012, Professor Lee will be lecturing at the O'Neill Institute Summer Program on Public Health at Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Simon Rushton presented a paper entitled 'Global health security' as part of the John and Elnora Ferguson Centre for African Studies (JEFCAS) seminar series, School of Social and International Studies, University of Bradford, Wednesday 21 March at 2pm.

 

53rd International Studies Association annual convention, 1-4 April 2012

As in previous years, there was strong representation at this year's ISA annual convention, which took place in San Diego at the beginning of April 2012. Papers by the project team included:

  • 'Tackling AIDS, building health systems: The politics, ethics and practicalities' - Simon Rushton
  • 'The IHR revisions: Socialization, compliance and changing norms of global health security' - Simon Rushton (and Adam Kamradt-Scott as a non-presenting author)
  • 'The domestic effects of TRIPS: Health policy, law and generics' - Owain D. Williams
  • 'Access to medicines and AIDS exceptionalism' - Owain D. Williams

NEWS ARCHIVE

 

Research

Whilst pursuing research on the general global politics of health, CHAIR is currently working on a number of principal research areas:

  • The global governance of health, particularly on the role of international organisations in generating what are often inchoate responses to health crises. CHAIR has just embarked on a major, ERC-funded project entitled 'The Transformation of Global Health Governance: Competing World Views and Crises' (see below) in association with Centre on Global Change and Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
  • The politics and securitization of infectious disease, most notably HIV/AIDS
  • The role of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Health Regulations (IHRs) in the global governance of health
  • The links between health, conflict and peace
  • The issue of access to medicines

 

'Transformation of Global Health Governance: Competing World Views and Crises'

ERC logo The European Research Council has awarded Professor Colin McInnes, Director of CHAIR, €2.35 million for a 4-year project on 'The Transformation of Global Health Governance: Competing World Views and Crises'. The project began in January 2009.

Professor McInnes is working alongside the Co-investigator Professor Kelley Lee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The project also involves the following research fellows: Dr. Simon Rushton (CHAIR); Dr. Owain Williams (CHAIR), Dr. Anne Roemer-Mahler (LSHTM), Dr Adam Kamradt-Scott (previously LSHTM; University of Sydney from October 2011) and Dr David Reubi (previous LSHTM; University of Sussex from March 2012). In addition the project involves two research students: Sonja Kittelsen (Aberystwyth) and Rob Doble (LSHTM).  

The Project Officer is Dr Rachel Vaughan, please contact her either by email or by phone (+44 (0)1970 622387) if you have any queries.

ERC project synopsis (pdf)

This research has been made possible through funding from the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme - Ideas Grant 230489 GHG. All views expressed remain those of the author.

 

Staff

PhDs

Associated staff (LSHTM)

PhD (LSHTM)

  • Doble, Rob

  

'Medicine, Conflict and Survival'

The Routledge journal Medicine, Conflict and Survival is edited in CHAIR by Simon Rushton, alongside Alan Ingram and Maria Kett at UCL.