Grand Strategy Enhances Effectiveness, Outcome of Global Health Efforts

A team of leading historians and public health professionals from the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute and Rwanda are urging that grand strategy—a comprehensive plan of action to achieve large ends with limited means—be incorporated into programs that target some of the world’s most challenging health problems.

The essay advocates that the use of grand strategy in formulating global health policy can strengthen planning efforts and markedly improve health outcomes. The paper appears in the April 16 issue of the journal International Health.

Global health issues are increasingly important to international relations, economic development and foreign affairs, the authors contend. Grand strategy can be used to leverage the global health movement and improve its effectiveness, primarily through the development of better leadership skills and strategic problem solving. The framework that they advocate involves five core principles, including starting the planning process with the end, or ultimate goal, firmly in mind.

The complex challenges of global health demand new and creative ways of thinking. “We need to embrace the extraordinary potential of reaching across disciplinary boundaries to find intersections that generate novel insights,” said lead author Leslie A. Curry, a research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health and a faculty member of the leadership institute.

Classic grand strategy has been refined through centuries of international relations and used throughout history by nations, often in the area of military campaigns, as they seek to achieve ambitious goals despite scarce resources. “It may seem counterintuitive to look to grand strategy to teach us about defeating maternal mortality, but this approach provides us with timeless principles that can be applied to help address some of our most pressing global health problems,” said Curry. A well–known grand strategist was George Kennan, architect of the Marshall Plan that provided the inspiration and roadmap to rebuild Europe after World War II.

Through the Global Health Leadership Institute, Yale is the first university to incorporate the discipline of grand strategy into global health. In June, the institute will host its second annual conference, which will include delegates from four countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia and Rwanda) who will continue their work on a specific health problem in their nation. The conference will also help to develop the leadership and strategic problem solving skills necessary to implement strategic and practical solutions. Concepts of grand strategy are integrated into the curriculum of the weeklong conference.

Other authors of “Achieving Large Ends With Limited Means: Grand Strategy in Global Health” include Elizabeth H. Bradley and Lauren Taylor, with the School of Public Health and GHLI; John Gaddis, Paul Kennedy and Minh A. Luong, of the Department of History at Yale; Harlan M. Krumholz, of the Yale School of Medicine; and Stephen Rulisa, of the Rwanda Health Ministry.