Funding Global Health Engagement to Support the Geographic Combatant Commands
Abstract
Global health engagement (GHE) provides a mechanism for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to work with U.S. allies and partners to develop their medical capacity and medical support capabilities and to improve U.S. interoperability with them, which can be critical to ensuring the health and safety of U.S. warfighters. Military medical personnel have a broad remit to engage individually or as a unit with a partners armed forces or civilian authorities to increase partner-nation health capabilities and capacity. The purpose of these engagements includes maintaining both U.S. force protection and medical readiness to respond to contingencies and the ability of U.S. forces to achieve a variety of U.S. national security objectives. Although the scope of global health activities has expanded significantly since the end of the Cold War, there are no dedicated sources of GHE funding. Currently, GHE activities are funded through a variety of funding mechanisms that were designed for a variety of purposes. Moreover, many GHE stakeholders have difficulty demonstrating to strategic planners at the geographic combatant commands (GCCs) how GHE directly supports combatant command plans and other strategic plans. Medical planners often rely on various one-time or single-year security cooperation funds, which makes it difficult to support sustained and consistent engagement. As DoD confronts evolving challenges posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the threat of conflict with a near-peer competitor, the need to prioritize resources for GHE to ensure U.S. medical readiness and force protection has become more acute.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1205469
Entities
People
- Beth Grill
- Chandler Sachs
- Jennifer D.P. Moroney
- Pauline Moore
- Trupti Brahmbhatt
Organizations
- RAND Corporation