The Future of Global Infectious Diseases: Multi-layered Health Governance in an Increasingly Divided World

2025/01/24

I have been conducting research on global infectious disease management from the perspective of international politics. In this context, the publication of my previous book, Humanity and Disease: Infectious Diseases and Health Disparities from the Perspective of International Politics (Chuko Shinsho, 2020), unexpectedly coincided with the pandemic of the century. Since then, while trembling at the threat of the pandemic, I spent my days directly engaging with my research subject, and from March 2023, I had the opportunity to conduct research with collaborators in France for one year. Now that we are overcoming the pandemic and moving to a new stage, I recognized the need to summarize and publish my research from the past few years, and published this book in October 2024.

Currently, the international community is facing multiple wars and political divisions are deepening, but infectious diseases are things that start suddenly and spread across borders regardless of such circumstances. In the present day, where various emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases are prevalent due to non-medical sciences reasons such as climate change and urbanization, infectious diseases are literally taking on a more global character. Therefore, each country's response to infectious diseases inevitably becomes strategic and political.

While global cooperation is necessary for infectious diseases that cross borders, the global cooperation framework is extremely chaotic against the backdrop of deepening political divisions and the politicization of infectious disease responses. Nevertheless, as no country can be self-sufficient in responding to infectious diseases, we must find ways to cooperate in some form. In this book, I examined this dilemma by focusing on cooperation in smaller units, such as between regions or like-minded countries, as well as organizational innovation. I also discussed Japan's role. Overall, this book discusses the issue of how to address infectious disease management as a global challenge in an international society where political divisions are worsening, from multiple perspectives.

With the inauguration of the second Trump administration in the United States in January 2025, global international cooperation is expected to face increasing difficulties. In such a situation, I hope to provide clues for thinking realistically about how we should prepare for the "next" one.

The Future of Global Infectious Diseases: Multi-layered Health Governance in an Increasingly Divided World

Kayo Takuma

Akashi Shoten

244 pages, 2,970 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.