Emergent patterns in global health diplomacy: a network analysis of the resolutions adopted by the World Health Assembly from 1948 to 2022

BMJ Global Health · 6 authors, 4 centres

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TL;DR

It found a complex, interconnected normative network with a core of highly linked topical resolutions and a periphery of procedural topics.

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The analysis identified a network with a densely connected core of primarily topical resolutions and a less connected periphery of procedural resolutions. Limitations include the focus solely on WHA resolutions, exclusion of annexes, potential errors in OCR and metadata, and a lack of qualitative evidence explaining citation patterns.

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other

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public health

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AI pipeline

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ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10083823

Emergent patterns in global health diplomacy: a network analysis of the resolutions adopted by the World Health Assembly from 1948 to 2022

BMJ Global Health

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ABSTRACT

Abstract From a complexity perspective on governance, multilateral diplomacy is based on interactions between people, ideas, norms, policies and institutions. This article uses a computer-assisted methodology to better understand governance systems as a network of norms. All World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions that were available from 1948 to 2022 were collected from the WHO Institutional Repository for Information Sharing (IRIS) database. Regular expressions were used to identify how resolutions cite other resolutions and the resulting relationships were analysed as a normative network. The findings show that WHA resolutions constitute a complex network of interconnected global health issues. This network is characterised by several community patterns. While chain-like patterns are associated with specific diseases programmes, radial patterns are characteristic of highly important procedural decisions that member states reaffirm in similar situations. Finally, densely connected communities correspond to contested topics and emergencies. While these emergent patterns suggest the relevance of using network analysis to understand global health norms in international organisations, we reflect on how this computational approach can be extended to provide new understandings of how multilateral governance systems work, and to address some important contemporary questions about the effects of regime complexity on global health diplomacy. Keywords: Public Health

CITATION EXPORT

Didier Wernli, Jean-Luc Falcone, Stephan Davidshofer et al.. Emergent patterns in global health diplomacy: a network analysis of the resolutions adopted by the World Health Assembly from 1948 to 2022. BMJ Global Health. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-011211

AUTHORS

6 · 4 CENTRES

Didier Wernli, Jean-Luc Falcone, Stephan Davidshofer, Kelley Lee, Bastien Chopard, Nicolas Levrat

1Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
2Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
3Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
4Faculty of Law, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland