In Conversation with Stefan Elbe

Episode 18

The Covid 19 Pandemic highlighted, once again, the importance of sharing scientific knowledge about deceases internationally. What are the hurdles to sharing information about the nature of a deadly virus in a timely manner, and how can they be overcome? How does knowledge gathered in medical laboratories become a matter of global politics? In this episode, Professor Stefan Elbe (University of Sussex) addresses these questions through his article “Bioinformational Diplomacy: Global Health Emergencies, Data Sharing and Sequential Life”, which won the EISA’s Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award in 2022. We discuss Professor Elbe’s cross-disciplinary research linking IR and the life sciences, the political value of laboratory practices of sequencing life at molecular scale and how it relates to issues of sovereignty, power, and security in international relations, and the need for what he calls ‘bioinformational diplomacy’. Tune in for a stimulating conversation about the potential of IR to complement the technical gaze of the life sciences.

Prof. Stefan Elbe

Elbe, Stefan (2022): ‘Bioinformational diplomacy: Global health emergencies, data sharing and sequential life’. European Journal of International Relations 27(3). Winner of the 2022 EJIR Best Article Award.

Elbe, Stefan, Vorlíček, Dagmar & Brenner, David (2023): ‘Rebels, vigilantes and mavericks: heterodox actors in global health governance’, European Journal of International Relations.

Elbe, Stefan (2022): ‘Who Owns a Deadly Virus? Viral Sovereignty, Global Health Emergencies, and the Matrix of the International’, International Political Sociology 16(2) June 2022.

Elbe, Stefan & Restoy, Enrique (2021): ‘Drilling Down in Norm Diffusion: Norm Domestication, “Glocal” Power, and Community-Based Organizations in Global Health’. Global Studies Quarterly 1(3).

Elbe, Stefan (2018): Pandemics, Pills, and Politics: Governing Global Health Security. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP.

Data Bases:

National Center for Biotechnology Information

GISAID