Post-Pandemic Alliance Realignment: Health Diplomacy as a Soft Power Tool

While Jankulovski (2025) critiques the pandemic’s erosion of multilateralism, and Sari et al. (2024) emphasize the WTO’s role in economic diplomacy, this research flips the narrative: health diplomacy (e.g., vaccine distribution, pandemic preparedness) as a deliberate alliance-building strategy. Drawing on Mahmood’s (2025) realism vs. liberalism power debate, I’d assess how states like China and the U.S. use "vaccine diplomacy" to cultivate dependencies—echoing Cold War-era tactics but with biomedical tools. The innovation lies in quantifying health cooperation’s impact on alliance durability (e.g., how COVAX recipients align with donors) and whether it mitigates or intensifies rivalry networks (Oishi & Sakuwa, 2020).

References:

1. The Role of the World Trade Organization in Shaping International Relations and Trade Diplomacy. Avid Leonardo Sari, Irwandi, Gusmailina, Loso Judijanto, Totok Hendarto (2024). The International Journal of Science and Society.
2. Power in International Relations: Insights from Realist and Liberal Theories. R. M. Mahmood (2025). European Scientific Journal.
3. THE CHALLENGES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE POST-COVID ERA. Stevce Jankulovski (2025). International Journal of Economics Management and Tourism.
4. Structural balance of alliance and rivalry networks in international relations. Koji Oishi, Kentaro Sakuwa (2020). Artif. Life Robotics.