Panel Discussion
Vaccine Diplomacy:
High Stakes for Health and Foreign Policy
Zoom Webinar
Monday, April 26, 2021 | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET
Global health and foreign policy are intersecting in critical ways as nations compete in a high-stakes global race to fund, and in some cases produce, Covid-19 vaccinations for beneficiary countries. As manufacturing and distribution capabilities evolve, countries such as Russia and China are opting to contribute fixed supplies of vaccines to certain countries of strategic importance, while the United States and its allies have instead preferred to fund programs such as COVAX, a global initiative with a mission to support equitable access. How has China integrated its own brand of vaccine diplomacy into a broader foreign policy strategy? What do nations such as Russia, India, United Arab Emirates, and Israel stand to gain from such great efforts in global health? Additionally, how has focused funding for programs like COVAX affected the leverage of wealthy democracies abroad? Please join us for an in-depth discussion of vaccine diplomacy on Monday, April 26th at 11:00 AM EDT, when we will be joined by Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, Director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center and Dr. David Ellwood, Senior Adjunct Professor of European and Eurasian Studies at SAIS Europe.
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SPEAKERS:
Krishna Udayakumar
Dr. Krishna Udayakumar is the founding Director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, focused on generating deeper evidence and support for the study, scaling, and adaptation of health innovations and policy reforms globally. He is also Executive Director of Innovations in Healthcare, a non-profit co-founded by Duke, McKinsey & Company, and the World Economic Forum, leading the organization’s work to curate and scale the impact of transformative health solutions globally.
At Duke University, Dr. Udayakumar holds the rank of Associate Professor of the Practice of Global Health and Associate Professor of Medicine, and is a core faculty member of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. He is also Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore. His work has been published in leading academic journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, and Academic Medicine.
Born in Bangalore, India, Dr. Udayakumar spent his childhood in Virginia, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia, with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies with distinction. He received both an MD and an MBA (with a concentration in Health Sector Management) from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar. Dr. Udayakumar completed his residency training in internal medicine at Duke and served as Assistant Chief Resident at the Durham VA Medical Center before joining the faculty of Duke University.
David Ellwood
Dr. David Ellwood is Senior Adjunct Professor of European and Eurasian Studies at SAIS Europe, where he teaches the course ‘Soft Power and Global Politics.’ His first major book was Italy 1943-1945: The Politics of Liberation (1985), followed by Rebuilding Europe: Western Europe, America and Postwar Reconstruction (1992). Formerly, he was the associate professor of contemporary international history at the University of Bologna and has served as President of the International Association for Media and History (1996-2002). Dr. Ellwood has a PhD in Italian studies from the University of Reading.
The fundamental theme of his research—the function of American power in contemporary European history—has shifted over the years to emphasize cultural power, hence two edited books on the theme Hollywood in Europe (Florence 1991, Amsterdam 1995). His large-scale work on America and the politics of modernization in Europe was published by Oxford University Press in July 2012 as The Shock of America. Europe and the Challenge of the Century (2nd edition, 2016).
Ellwood is a frequent contributor of articles and reviews to academic journals, policy forums, and news outlets. He recently published an article on the vaccine diplomacy topic, “Vaccine Diplomacy: A New Chapter in the Story of Soft Power.”
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