Fraundorfer, M and Winn, N (2021) The emergence of post-Westphalian health governance during the COVID-19 pandemic: the European Health Union. Disasters. ISSN 0361-3666
Abstract
The global response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020/21 was dominated by the Westphalian primacy of national territory and sovereignty, significantly worsening and prolonging this global health crisis. Global platforms for cross-border coordination and cooperation, set up by the WHO and other global health partnerships, were constrained by national self-interest. Arguably, the lack of a global supranational (or post-Westphalian) authority in global health governance is one important structural reason for the fragmented, chaotic and ineffective global health response to a post-Westphalian challenge like Covid-19. We argue that the failure of Westphalian governance responses to the pandemic provides a unique window of opportunity for post-Westphalian governance structures to be established and play a vital role in reforming international pandemic preparedness. While we realise that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon at the global level, we show that a comprehensive post-Westphalian health governance framework is indeed emerging at EU level in the form of a European Health Union. Through a combined conceptualisation of supranational governance and the securitisation process of international health crises, we demonstrate how COVID-19 has pushed the door wide open for the emergence of post-Westphalian health governance at EU level coordinated by the European Commission.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Fraundorfer, M. and Winn, N. (2021), The emergence of post-Westphalian health governance during the COVID-19 pandemic: the European Health Union. Disasters. Accepted Author Manuscript, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12511. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. |
Keywords: | Covid-19; European Health Union; global health governance; pandemic preparedness; post-Westphalian governance; regional health governance; supranational authority |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Politics & International Studies (POLIS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 01 Oct 2021 08:42 |
Last Modified: | 22 Sep 2023 00:13 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/disa.12511 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:178660 |