Reflections on the revolution in health and foreign policy

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 raises difficult questions about how the making and implementation of foreign policy will deal with health in the future. These questions suggest that WHO and its members are experiencing a transition in the global politics of public health, a transition perhaps more profound than the one signalled by the establishment of WHO in 1946. The revolution in the relationship between health and foreign policy represents the nascent forma-tion of a new global social contract for health.