DOI: 10.1111/mepo.12592 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Covid-19 Pandemic and Iranian Health Diplomacy Ali Bagheri Dolatabadi Mehran Kamrava Dr. Bagheri Dolatabadi is an associate professor of international relations at Yasouj University in Iran. Dr. Kamrava is a professor of government at Georgetown University Qatar. Abstract Iran’s foreign policy changed with the spread of Covid- 19 in three main ways. First, the pandemic propelled its health diplomacy into prominence. Second, the pan- demic altered the customary view of the country’s diplo- macy. For more than four decades, Iran has regarded this diplomacy from the perspective of humanitarian- ism and ethics. But the pandemic imparted new object lessons. Third, the pandemic ushered Iran into a new era of cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO). Considering Iran’s medical and other scientific achievements over the past three decades, it seems likely that pursuing this diplomacy can improve Iran’s posi- tion in the WHO and enhance its prestige and influence within this and other international organizations, possi- bly easing the pressure of sanctions in the future. Health diplomacy and international cooperation on public health dates from 1851, when Euro- pean states gathered for the first International Sanitary Conference to discuss collaboration on cholera, plague, and yellow fever. 1 In 1978, Peter Bourne, US President Jimmy Carter’s special adviser for health affairs, coined the now widely used term of “medical diplomacy.” 2 This con- cept has developed and matured over recent decades, with policy makers and researchers now frequently referring to “global health diplomacy.” The successive outbreaks of SARS in 2003 and H1N1 Influenza A in 2009 exemplified how quickly emerging infections can spread, costing lives and curtailing travel and trade among interdependent economies. 3 1 David Fidler, “Globalization of Public Health: Emerging Infectious Diseases and International Relations,” Indiana Jour- nal of Global Legal Studies 5, no. 1(Fall 1997): 11. 2 Peter G. Bourne, “A Partnership for International Health Care,” Public Health Reports 93, no. 2 (1978): 121. 3 Rebecca Katz, et al. “Defining Health Diplomacy: Changing Demands in the Era of Globalization,” The Milbank Quarterly 89, no. 3 (2011): 503. MIDDLE EAST POLICY. 2021;1–17. © 2021 The Middle East Policy Council 1 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mepo