September 23, 2010
New England Journal of Medicine
An International Service Corps for Health
An Unconventional Prescription for Diplomacy
By Vanessa Bradford Kerry, Sara Auld and Paul Farmer
At first glance, medicine may seem unrelated to foreign policy, but in reality it is an unappreciated partner of diplomacy. In many parts of the world, poverty, inequity based on ethnicity or sex, shoddy public infrastructure, and environmental degradation have resulted in poor health as well as political and social instability. Poor health, in turn, fuels social vulnerabilities and discord, as illness ...
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