David P Fidler

• Senior Fellow at Council on Foreign Relations

As focus for exploration of Mars transitions from current robotic explorers to development of crewed missions, it remains important to protect the integrity of scientific investigations at Mars, as well as protect the Earth's biosphere from any potential harmful effects from returned martian material. This is the discipline of planetary protection,...

International Law and Infectious Diseases is the first comprehensive analysis of the intersection between international law and infectious diseases. Infectious diseases pose a global threat, and international law plays an important but under-explored role in infectious disease control. The book analyses the globalization of public health; and it ex...

As societies, governments, corporations, and individuals become more dependent on the digital environment, so they also become increasingly vulnerable to misuse of that environment. A considerable industry has developed to provide the means with which to make cyberspace more secure, stable, and predictable. Cybersecurity is concerned with the ident...

Russian meddling in the 2016 elections in the United States sparked debates in liberal democracies about how to counter foreign election interference. These debates reveal the seriousness of the threat and the complexity of responses to it, including how to protect voting systems and what actions social media companies should take against disinform...

Evidence of election interference by foreign states or their proxies has become a regular feature of national elections and is likely to get worse in the near future. Information and communication technologies afford those who would interfere with new tools that can operate in ways previously unimaginable: Twitter bots, Facebook advertisements, clo...

Background The 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR (2005)) require States Parties to establish National Focal Points (NFPs) responsible for notifying the World Health Organization (WHO) of potential events that might constitute public health emergencies of international concern (PHEICs), such as outbreaks of novel infectious diseases. Given...

Background: The 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR (2005)) require States Parties to establish National Focal Points (NFPs) responsible for notifying the World Health Organization (WHO) of potential events that might constitute public health emergencies of international concern (PHEICs), such as outbreaks of novel infectious diseases. Given...

Since the 1980s, national and international planetary protection policies have sought to avoid contamination by terrestrial organisms that could compromise future investigations regarding the origin or presence of Martian life. Over the last decade, the number of national space agencies planning, participating in, and undertaking missions to Mars h...

One of the most striking features of the COVID-19 pandemic is how balance-of-power politics have shaped U.S. and Chinese responses to this global health crisis. The geopolitical reactions of China and the United States to the pandemic have implications for global health, including global health endeavors focused on Africa. This chapter explores how...

Under U.S. policy and international treaty, the goals of planetary protection are to avoid both adverse changes in Earth’s environment caused by introducing extraterrestrial matter and harmful contamination of solar system bodies in order to protect their biological integrity for scientific study. The United States has long cooperated with other co...

Balance-of-power politics have shaped how countries, especially the United States and China, have responded to the covid -19 pandemic. The manner in which geopolitics have influenced responses to this outbreak is unprecedented, and the impact has also been felt in the field of international law. This article surveys how geopolitical calculations ap...

Before coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) struck, cooperation on global health—especially for pandemic preparedness and response—would, we told ourselves, enhance national security, support economic wealth, protect human rights, and facilitate humanitarian assistance around the world. However, the politics of the coronavirus catastrophe do not ref...

New Technologies and the Law in War and Peace - edited by William H. Boothby December 2018

Edmund Burke has long been regarded as one of the most important political thinkers of the late eighteenth century, and his writings and speeches continue to inspire and challenge to the present day. But Burke’s thinking on international relations has not been fully addressed by the scholarly community. This situation is ironic given that so much o...

As a candidate for president of the United States, Donald J. Trump promised to abandon longstanding U.S. approaches to trade and pursue strategies anchored in protectionism and nationalism. This article examines President Trump’s trade policy ideas and proposals and highlights the extent to which he intends to disrupt traditions of U.S. policymakin...

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2298 - Volume 55 Issue 6 - David P. Fidler

Governments have long worried about terrorists using the Internet to launch cyberattacks, spread propaganda, recruit and radicalise individuals and raise funds. However, the Islamic State’s exploitation of social media has caused a crisis and generated questions about international law’s role in addressing terrorism in cyberspace. This article anal...

The emergence of cyber means and methods of war, force, and coercion raises ethical questions under just war theory different from those historically generated by the development of ever more destructive instruments of war. Whether in armed conflict or contexts not considered war, cyber technologies create political and ethical incentives for their...

The system of international cooperation built after World War II around the UN is facing unprecedented challenges. Globalization has magnified the impact of security threats, human rights abuses, mass atrocities, climate change, refugee, trade and financial flows, pandemics and cyberspace traffic. No single nation, however powerful, can solve them...

In October 2016, the United States accused Russia of hacking political organizations involved in the U.S. elections and leaking pilfered information to influence the outcome. In December, President Obama imposed sanctions for the hacking. This incident damaged President Obama's cybersecurity legacy. The “hack and leak” campaign targeted American se...

The west African Ebola epidemic that began in 2013 exposed deep inadequacies in the national and international institutions responsible for protecting the public from the far-reaching human, social, economic, and political consequences of infectious disease outbreaks. The Ebola epidemic raised a crucial question: what reforms are needed to mend the...

The Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa was unprecedented in both its scale and impact. Out of this human calamity has come renewed attention to global health security--its definition, meaning, and the practical implications for programmes and policy. For example, how does a government begin to strengthen its core public health capacities,...

When Edward Snowden began leaking NSA documents in June 2013, his actions sparked impassioned debates about electronic surveillance, national security, and privacy in the digital age. TheSnowden Reader looks at Snowden’s disclosures and their aftermath. Critical analyses by experts discuss the historical, political, legal, and ethical issues raised...

On December 14, 2012, member states of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approved the Final Acts of the World Conference on International Telecommunications. The ITU is the specialized agency of the United Nations fostering cooperation on information and communication technologies, and, through world conferences, it periodically revis...

Introduction. In recent years, concerns about governments, terrorists, and criminals using cybertechnologies as weapons have increased. News stories report that government and private sector computer and computer systems are under nearly constant cyberattack from foreign governments, terrorist groups, and transnational organised crime. Under this p...

Violations of privacy online threaten an individual's sense of security-and relate to the problem of protecting human security in cyberspace. In the cyber and noncyber realms, prospects for human security are shaped by policies designed.

In May 2008, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework for the Sharing of Influenza Viruses and Access to Vaccines and Other Benefits (PIP Framework). The PIP Framework’s adoption ended years of difficult negotiations, which began after Indonesia refused to share samples of avian influenza A (H5N1) wi...

This article engages in mapping thinking and practice on global health diplomacy. Increased interest in “global health diplomacy” and “health diplomacy” heightens the need for more rigorous descriptive, conceptual, analytical, and practical approaches to these phenomena. This article discusses why more rigor is needed with respect to global health...

Introduction: Much of baseball's lore centers on the game's meaning in the United States. “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you,” sang Simon and Garfunkel. However, the US national pastime is a global game. As the focus on Japan and East Asia elsewhere in this volume suggests, a understanding baseball today requi...

Introduction: The relationship between public health and criminal law includes international dimensions that deserve exploration. Often, analyses of public health’s interactions with criminal law do not address these international dimensions, and examination of global health frequently ignores international criminal law – perhaps for good reason. T...

Global health has risen in prominence in foreign policy but now faces a fall in its foreign policy importance. Global health's recent rise in foreign policy has been unprecedented, but this phenomenon reveals continuity and change in how foreign policy has addressed global health in previous periods. This historical perspective points to the need f...

The International Health Regulations (2005) [IHR(2005)] represent a potentially revolutionary change in global health governance. The use of the regulations by the World Health Organization (WHO) to respond to the outbreak of pandemic influenza A 2009-H1N1 highlights the importance of the regulations to protecting global health security. As the 200...

This article provides a framework for thinking about Asian approaches to and impact on global health diplomacy and governance that might contribute to more sophisticated analyses on Asia in global health politics, diplomacy, and governance. First, the article examines the “rise of Asia” and “rise of health” as overlapping but unconnected developmen...

As part of the PLoS Medicine series on Global Health Diplomacy, David Fidler provides a case study of the difficult negotiations to increase equitable access to vaccines for highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) and pandemic 2009 influenza A (H1N1).

Much of the attention paid to the growth in the political, economic, and strategic importance of Asia focuses on East and Southeast Asia, with China's rise featuring most prominently in analyses. However, examination of the possible development of an international order influenced by Asian power and ideas must also include consideration of the othe...

Eastphalia Emerging?: Asia, International Law, and Global Governance, Symposium. Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana, 2009

The public health consequences of the conflict in Iraq will likely continue after the violence has subsided. Reestablishing public health security will require large investments in infrastructure and the creation of effective systems of governance. On the question of governance, the allocation of powers in the new constitution of Iraq is critical....

The book provides a guide to the law relevant to receiving, reviewing, and responding to national security letters issued by agencies of the United States government. Recent legislative amendments, adopted in response to federal court decisions holding portions of earlier statutes unconstitutional, now permit recipients of national security letters...

This article forms part of a six-part Series on trade and health, and sets the stage for this Series by analysing key aspects of the relationship between trade and health. The Series takes stock of this relation and provides timely analysis of the key challenges facing efforts to achieve an appropriate balance between trade and health across a dive...

In 2008, global health’s political revolution, which unfolded over the preceding 10-15 years, ended when four global crises damaged global health and altered the political, diplomatic, and governance contexts in which global health activities operate. The climate change, energy, food, and economic crises revealed limitations in global health’s abil...

This chapter seeks to remedy the neglect of international considerations in the analysis of U.S. public health law. The first section focuses on the legal structure and sources of public health law viewed from an international perspective. It then reviews U.S. participation in international health diplomacy. The next two sections address the law re...

Biosecurity comprehensively analyzes the dramatic transformations that are reshaping how the international community addresses biological weapons and infectious diseases. The book examines the renewed threat from biological weapons, and explores the new world of biological weapons governance. Gostin and Fidler argue that the arms control approach i...

Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Government of United States of America Concerning the Deployment of Ground Based Ballistic Missile Defense Interceptors in the Territory of the Republic of Poland* - Volume 47 Issue 6 - David P. Fidler

The International Health Regulations (IHR), the principal legal instrument guiding the international management of public health emergencies, have recently undergone an extensive revision process. The revised regulations, referred to as the IHR (2005), were unanimously approved in May 2005 by all Member States of the World Health Assembly (WHA) and...

Public health legal preparedness begins with effective legal authorities, and law provides a key foundation for public health practice in the United States. Laws not only create public health agencies and fund them, but also authorize and impose duties upon government to protect the public's health while preserving individual liberties. As a result...

This paper is one of the four interrelated action agenda papers resulting from the National Summit on Public Health Legal Preparedness (Summit) convened in June 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and multi-disciplinary partners. Each of the action agenda papers deals with one of the four core elements of legal preparedness: laws...

Indonesia's decision to withhold samples of avian influenza virus A (H5N1) from the World Health Organization for much of 2007 caused a crisis in global health. The World Health Assembly produced a resolution to try to address the crisis at its May 2007 meeting. I examine how the parties to this controversy used international law in framing and neg...

The rise of the importance of non-State actors in global politics challenges existing theories of international relations, and this article presents a new approach to the non-State actor phenomenon by developing a “theory of open-source anarchy.” The article reviews the anarchy problem in the study of international relations and how leading the...

The organizers of this conference have provided us with a rich assortment of issues to consider in the relationship between policy, law, and women's health. I have been asked to focus my remarks on conceptual concerns associated with establishing and implementing global standards for promoting and protecting women's health, with a particular eye on...

All Politics Is Global: Explaining International Regulatory Regimes. By Daniel W. Drezner. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. 234p. $29.95. Daniel Drezner begins his book by throwing down a gauntlet: “Globalization is responsible for a lot of bad international relations theory” (p. 3). This assertion caused this reviewer to nod in agreeme...

Indonesia's refusal to share samples of H5N1 virus with World Health Organization for most of 2007 is distressing and potentially dangerous for global public health, argue the authors.

Services of many kinds play important roles in the protection of public health and the delivery of health care to individuals. The GATS affects healthrelated services in many ways for health policymakers. In addition, the GATS establishes a process designed to liberalize progressively trade in services, and health policymakers must be prepared to p...

In Reply: We disagree with Dr Brewer regarding his CDC classification of Andrew Speaker. The CDC has recently revised its tuberculosis screening protocols for immigrant visa applicants, emphasizing the importance of TB cultures in addition to acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear microscopy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Glob...

Recent catastrophes, and predictions of an increasing potential for more, have stimulated thinking about the best policy responses to these threats. This article explores how security concepts influence catastrophe governance. The article considers how globalization affects thinking about catastrophes and describes ways in which catastrophes have b...

Planning for triage of scarce resources in the face of a flu pandemic is not simply an abstract moral dilemma1: it remains unsolved at the highest levels of international planning. Europe remains two to three years away from a state of preparedness for a flu pandemic.2 Previous modelling has shown that a massive and focused use of antivirals and va...

reflect increasing interest in, and con-cern about, the relationship between health and foreign policy. Such inten-sified attention signals awareness of a transformation in this relationship that is leaving its imprint on the protection and promotion of health nationally and internationally. This transformation remains incompletely understood and r...

Globalization has intensified the health risks posed by pandemic influenza. Effective governance to prepare for, and respond to, a pandemic depends on four key functions: surveillance, protection, response, and communication. Although the global nature of the threat posed is recognized, efforts to strengthen cooperation have only made limited progr...

The incident in May-June 2007 involving a U.S. citizen traveling internationally while infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis involved the U.S. federal government's application of its quarantine and isolation powers. The incident and the isolation order raised numerous important issues for public health governance, law, and ethics. This article...