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Foreign policies are a set of self-interest strategies opted by a state to safeguard its national interests. Foreign policies of every nation take into consideration the physical and mental security of the people, territory and critical infrastructure of the state. Bioweapons, Pandemics and emerging disease are a threat to global and national security. Thus public health comes under the radar of foreign policy. The elected representatives of any country are responsible for public health since the health of the people is linked with the progress and development of a country. Therefore it is required to formulate such foreign policies which address the issues of public health. Based on this introduction this paper aims to discuss the ways in which foreign policy influence the public health issues and the agencies linked to it.

Bioweapons used during the time of war and conflict is one of the greatest public health issues. The use of bioweapons creates a detrimental impact on the citizens since they create serious injuries and death in the targeted areas. This is a point of concern for the government and the issue can be cratered by effective foreign policies. Containment of the use of biological weapons possessed by belligerent countries through efficient foreign policies is the way in which foreign policy influence public health. One example of this the Biological Weapons Convention between USA and USSR which banned the use of toxic weapons in 1975 (Mikulak, 2017). Hence this shows the influence of foreign policy on the public health issue.

Another public health issue is increased substance abuse. In American society, the use of drugs by teenagers is increasing on a daily basis. This is an area of concern for public health agencies because rehabilitation of people suffering from substance abuse is a challenging issue. Behavioural health agencies like the California Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies (CBHA) deals with patients of substance abuse and collaborate with the federal government for the establishment of effective public policies. Such agencies provide data and insight about public health issues and the raise or decrees in the number of patients. This helps the federal government in determining foreign policies. For example tightening the security of the Mexican boarders because of the infiltration of drug mafia (Payan, 2016) is a foreign policy which addressed the issue of public health.

The last most prominent public health issue is obesity which is very common in India. Increased rate of obesity in Asian countries is due to the raised penchant of the people towards western food. This is an area of concern for healthcare agencies. This issue can be solved by such foreign policies which will limit the number of fast food outlets in the country. One potent example is the green revolution which promotes the use of green vegetables and fruits (Conway, 2019).

So to conclude, the above discussion sufficiently proves that foreign policies greatly influence public health issues around the world in a different manner like signing of MOUs for containment of weapons, strict immigration laws and advocating revolutions related to public health.

References

Conway, G. (2019). The doubly green revolution: food for all in the twenty-first century. Cornell University Press.

Mikulak, R. P. (2017). Bugs and gas: Agreements banning chemical and biological weapons. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1898, 030008. AIP Publishing.

Payan, T. (2016). The Three US-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security. ABC-CLIO.