'Is the European Union a Global Health Actor? An Analysis of Its Capacities, Involvement and Challenges' 

(with Peter Chang)

 European Foreign Affairs Review, 

Issue 3, 2013, September, pp. 309–328

Abstract

This article deals with the EU's involvement in global health and the reality of its 'actorness' in this domain of international politics. Observing that this last decade, the European Union (EU) has been increasingly involved in global health separately from the global health actions already initiated by the EU Member States individually, it proposes to evaluate the 'actorness' of the EU in global health by using an analytical framework which considers that role, policy and institutional instruments and influence are the three main criteria of actorness in International Relations. After testing empirically this analytical framework in order to explore how EU's involvement in global health has been materialized so far and for which kind of outcomes, it sheds light on several challenges that EU has to face when it is involved in global health. It concludes that while the EU can be considered as a global health actor, it is still an 'actor in construction' notably because it needs to build the image of an actor speaking with one voice and to be perceived as an actor with a coherent behaviour in global affairs.

Link:  https://www.kluwerlawonline.com/abstract.php?area=Journals&id=EERR2013020