Table 1 Summary of Fidler’s health and foreign policy conceptualizations[20]

Revolution

•Health’s increasing role in foreign policy is transformative of the health-foreign policy nexus

Health collapses the traditional distinction between high and low politics and creates a new political space in which health is    an overriding normative value and the ultimate goal of foreign policy

Health is broadly conceived and encompasses the social determinants of health

Is consistent with health discourses that focus on health as a human right and the “health for all” ideal

Remediation

• Health’s rise as foreign policy issue reflects the continued persistence of the traditional hierarchy of foreign policy functions

Health has become another issue that needs to be addressed through traditional approaches to foreign policy, or as a    strategic vehicle through which traditional foreign policy goals can be achieved

Foreign policy attention on health is focused when disease crises appear and fades when crises drop off the political spotlight

Provides the strongest explanation for why health has risen as a foreign policy issue

Regression

•Health’s integration into foreign policy is a regressive development – an indicator that health problems are getting worse

The increasing attention paid to health across the functions of foreign policy signifies the failure of public health efforts

Connecting health with the high politics of foreign policy threatens to tarnish long-standing associations of health with    normative values

Public health’s wish for health to become more politically prominent may have come true but in a way that threatens what    was special about health in the first place