ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has most recently exposed many weaknesses of the system of transnational governance and global action for health, demonstrating the urgent need to reflect on historic path dependencies in considering how to change what does not work. This chapter discusses the emergence of cross-border co-operation for health, focusing on three prominent patterns of activity-the emergence of colonial medicine, of regional inter-state co-operation, and of the involvement of philanthropic foundations in health work. It briefly outlines key characteristics of international governance of and for health, as illustrated by state co-operation within intergovernmental organizations. The chapter briefly discusses global action for health or the work of non-state actors in global public health. Stand-alone regional health organizations no longer exist but have been subsumed into broader structures of multilateral governance-such as the EU, African Union and ASEAN-which continue to support states in addressing local and regional health priorities.
