ABSTRACT
How does medicine shape global politics? And, how does the conduct of global politics shape medicine? These questions have, as yet, not been robustly addressed in International Relations. This Chapter seeks to remedy this by proposing a new field of study: Medical IR. Drawing from studies of medicine in anthropology, sociology, and history, as well as feminist and post-colonial studies, the chapter argues that the study of medicine and medical science could change how we view significant topics at the core of IR, including: war and warfare; humanitarianism; and global governance and international cooperation, to name a few. It argues that the intellectual project of studying science, technology, and art in IR opens exciting possibilities for examining medicine in the discipline. As such, the chapter illustrates a number of examples of how medicine and medical science have been essential to the conduct of international affairs, both past and present.
