Summary

• The spread of old and new infectious diseases constitutes both a threat to U.S. and global security and peace and an opportunity for the United States to burnish its international image through strengthening foreign capacity in infectious disease surveillance and response.
• Despite an increase in overall U.S. expenditures on global public health, U.S. policy is not fully meeting this challenge or capturing this opportunity. Little-known policies implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Department of Defense offer cost-effective strategies that should be expanded under President Obama's new Global Health Initiative to improve infectious disease control abroad as both a frontline defense against a potential pandemic and a peaceful and positive dimension of U.S. global health diplomacy.

About This Report

Recognizing the threat posed by old and new infectious diseases, this report examines U.S. policies in support of foreign capacity to control the spread of dangerous pathogens. It calls for expanding U.S. policies designed to strengthen surveillance and response capacity abroad as a frontline defense against a potential pandemic and as a peaceful and positive dimension of U.S. global health diplomacy.

William J. Long is professor and chair of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow with the United States Institute of Peace. Jennifer Marsh provided research assistance in preparing this report.