Globalization and the Future of Global Public Goods

Bono (L) of Irish band U2 and WEF Executive Chairman and founder Klaus Schwab attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 22, 2016. (Reuters/Ruben Sprich)

For many years, I have warned that what we call global health—along with humanitarianism, climate change mitigation, development, and food programs—was in grave danger. Having hitched their wagons to globalization, broad humanitarian missions—chiefly financed by the U.S. and UK governments and U.S. private interests—were overly vulnerable to political change in the United States and United Kingdom. After the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent euro crisis, the volume of my warnings increased, as the pool of major donors to such efforts shrank and dependency on the United States and Bill Gates grew. I sent personal letters in 2008 to several leaders of major multinational health organizations, urging them to prepare for catastrophic losses in donor support and a far-right takeover of the U.S. government.

That moment has now come.