The long separation of health and international relations as distinct academic fields and policy arenas has now dramatically changed health concerned with the body mind and spirit has traditionally focused on disease and infirmity whilst international relations has been dominated by concerns of war peace and security since the 1990s however the two fields have increasingly overlapped. Health concerned with the body mind and spirit has traditionally focused on disease and infirmity whilst international relations has been dominated by concerns of war peace and security since. The thriving state of global health in international relations is seen perhaps most clearly in the number and range of books published in the last five years from 825 1 we use the capitalised global health to refer to the field of study and the lower case global health to refer to the policy arena and practice 2 caroline thomas on the health of international relations and the international relations of health. Download citation global health and international relations the long separation of health and international relations as distinct academic fields and policy arenas has now dramatically changed