In the past decade, global health has become a new U.S. foreign policy priority, enjoyed exceptional bipartisan support, and climbed to an annual US government investment of $10 billion, fully a third of all U.S. foreign assistance. Global health has come to be seen as a ‘best buy’ for achieving concrete health improvements in people’s lives and leveraging the United States’ ‘Smart Power.’ In this same period, several complex and polarizing issues have gained momentum. They defy easy solutions, divide and fragment constituencies, and impede progress. In the midst of ever tighter budgets and heightened scrutiny of investments, these controversies can corrode consensus and have serious downstream implications: in term of strategy, core values, policy coherence and the allocation of future dollars.
On August 6, 2010, the CSIS Global Health Policy Center launched a year-long debate series -- ‘Fault Lines in Global Health’ -- intended to generate an informed, civil, bipartisan, and open airing of opinion on critical global health controversies.
The noted health expert and correspondent, Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief of Health Affairs, has kindly agreed to moderate the series. Each debate will run 90 minutes, feature a lead presenter and 1-2 respondents, and allow time for substantial audience participation.