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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

January 2012 - new publications

  • Colin McInnes and Simon Rushton, 'HIV/AIDS and Securitization Theory', European Journal of International Relations, published online, 24 January 2012.
  • Adam Kamradt-Scott and Simon Rushton, 'The revised International Health Regulations: socialization, compliance and changing norms of global health security', Global Change, Peace and Security, Vol. 24, No. 1, published online, 30 January 2012.

The Lancet article

Kelley Lee is cited by Pamela Das and Udani Samarasekera in the supplementary webappendix (PDF) of the Lancet article 'The Commission on Macroeconomics and Health:10 years on'.

World AIDS Day 2011

To mark this year’s World AIDS Day (1 December), Chatham House has published an expert comment by Dr Simon Rushton discussing the challenges that the current financial environment poses for AIDS advocates.  

An interview with Dr. Rushton, in which he discusses global health strategies in relation to AIDS, is also available here.  

Furthermore, Simon was also one of the speakers at the at Chatham House event A Balancing Act? Tackling AIDS and Building Health Systems', with a paper entitled: 'AIDS: Five Neglected Questions for Global Health Strategies' (pdf).

Other participants included: Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni (Senior Health and HIV Policy Advisor, Oxfam UK), Dr. Alvaro Bermejo (Executive Director, International HIV/AIDS Alliance) and Dr. Ken Grant (Director, HLSP Institute). The event was chaired by Professor David L. Heymann (Head and Senior Fellow, Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security). 

In addition, and also marking World AIDS Day, Kelley Lee has commented on the blog pages of the journal Global Health Governance in a post entitled 'Exceptionalism of a Different Kind'.

Nature article

Professor Kelley Lee is quoted in an article entitled 'Palestinian membership puts UN projects at risk' in the November 10 2011 issue of Nature. The article examines the implications for UN bodies (most immediately in financial terms) as a result of the recent decision of UNESCO to grant membership to the Palestinian Authority. Since its decision, UNESCO has lost out financially, not least the $80million US annual contribution - US law prevents the nation from funding any UN body that grants full membership to any organization that is not an internationally recognized state.

Professor Lee suggests that while other countries (most obviously China) might make up a funding shortfall if the UNESCO situation was replicated in the World Health Organization, ongoing internal reform within the WHO means that Palestinian membership might well remain on hold in the for the time being anyway.

Political Studies articles

The new issue of Political Studies (December 2011) contains two articles by members of the ERC project team:

Previous news updates

Challenging the Powers That Be: Indonesia, WHO & Virus-sharing

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 Centre on Global Change and Health at LSHTM. The project also involves a further four researchers: Dr. Simon Rushton (CHAIR); Dr. Owain Williams (CHAIR), Dr. Anne Roemer-Mahler (LSHTM) and Dr David Reubi (LSHTM). In addition the project involves two research students: Sonja Kittelson (Aberystwyth) and Rob Doble (LSHTM).  

 

The Project Officer is Dr Rachel Owen, 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)

'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.

Contact Details

Dr Rachel Owen
Project Officer / Research Assistant
CHAIR
Dept. of International Politics
Aberystwyth University
Penglais
Aberystwyth
SY23 3FE
Tel: +44 (0)1970 622387 Fax: +44 (0)1970 622709 Email: rjo@aber.ac.uk