How America Can Shape Global Health Without the WHO
The United States formally withdraws from the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 22, leaving the leading United Nations health agency without its largest historical funder and most capable public-health partner. Much commentary has framed the move as reckless disengagement. That misunderstands both the rationale for withdrawal and the opportunity it creates. As detailed in a American Enterprise Institute working paper, withdrawal should be understood not as abandonment, but as the beginning of a new strategy.
The question is not whether the United States still has global health interests—it plainly does—but whether they are best advanced through an institution that failed its most important test and then sought to expand its authority without a serious reckoning.