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Healthcare & Global Geopolitics
The Quiet Revolution: Trump’s WHO Withdrawal and the Reordering of Global Health Politics
A move that challenges the status quo and exposes geopolitical imbalances in international health governance.
President Donald Trump’s first day back at the White House means a seismic shift in global health politics: he has made good on his promise of pulling out of the World Health Organization (WHO). The declaration is a clear statement to revisiting his older grouses against the organization and relighting debates surrounding the member countries’ responsibilities with the funding and impetus behind global institutions. While short of violence, it is in keeping with Trump’s revolutionary approach to remaking America’s place in the world of alliances and could make a big change to the global order.
The WHO, a giant of international health cooperation, has been attacked for years as inefficient and too loathe to some political influences. The president’s executive order claims that failure to perform critical reforms and mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic were the reasons for withdrawal. While his decision has been met with backlash from public health experts and political leaders, it forces a critical question: