Emerging Theoretical Frameworks for Global Health Governance

The shift from an international to a global world order has substantially transformed how health is produced at the global level and, consequently, how health can be regulated at the global level. This entails that analysts concerned with global health need new sets of theoretical tools to analyse global health governance. This chapter presents three different case studies (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, trade agreement on intellectual property rights in relation to access to medicines and national policies on global health) analyzing major governance issues through different theoretical perspectives (implementation theories, a critical discourse analysis, theories on the formulation and circulation of policy ideas). This chapter ends with a tentative way to make sense of global health governance research that accommodates different research questions and theoretical perspectives.