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US Global Health Leadership: The First Year of the Second Trump Administration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2026
Abstract
The second Trump administration has shaken the foundations of US leadership in global health, with this column assessing rapid shifts in global health governance. By analyzing how the administration’s anti-science ethos, foreign assistance cuts, and multilateral disengagement have undermined global solidarity, the column considers the destabilizing impacts on global health and examines how other states, regional bodies, and international organizations are responding to this US decline. This examination reveals both strains for global health promotion and resilience within a changed governance landscape.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Columns: Global Health Law
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics
Footnotes
About This Column
Benjamin Mason Meier and Lawrence O. Gostin serve as the section editors for Global Health Law. Professor Meier is a Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Senior Scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Professor Gostin is Distinguished University Professor at Georgetown University and the Founding Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. This column features timely analyses and perspectives on law, policy, and justice in global health.
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