Introduction: Agency in Global Health

Abstract

Traditionally, states — and the conflicts that have been associated with them in terms of military, economic and ideological expansion — have been the major topic of study in the discipline, as the classical literature by Edward H. Carr (1939), Hans Morgenthau (1948) or Kenneth Waltz (1979) shows. However, the emergence of research agendas diverging from a strict focus on the state have started to gain currency since the 1990s to the point where they are now challenging the relevance of the state as a major factor in international affairs.