Applied Health Diplomacy – U.S. Health Attachés and the Tradecraft of Global Health Diplomacy

A health attachés is a diplomat who collects, analyzes, and acts on information concerning health in a foreign country or countries and provides critical links between public health and foreign affairs stakeholders.  Understanding the role of health attachés, who work across disciplines and national boundaries, is important to improve the effectiveness of their work, enhance countries use of health attachés, and help shape training and professional development of future Global Health Diplomacy (GHD) practitioners. In this session, we first describe the conceptual background of GHD in the twenty-first century and its impact on the development of the health attaché.   Next, we introduce a Pyramid of Global Health Diplomacy, presenting myriad actors, definitions, and tools to update concepts used in this field, followed by a description of current practices and competencies of health attachés as a specific type of diplomat. Finally, we propose a tradecraft model for a modern health attaché to characterize the qualifications and training necessary for these professionals.