Editors’ Introduction
Author | W Andy Knight,Asa McKercher |
DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020221138906 |
Published date | 01 June 2022 |
Date | 01 June 2022 |
Subject Matter | Editorߣs Introduction |
Introduction
International Journal
2022, Vol. 77(2) 163–167
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/00207020221138906
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Editors’Introduction
Before beginning our formal introduction to this issue, we wish to pay a short tribute to
Bill Graham, who died on 7 August 2022. An academic, lawyer, politician, and
philanthropist, Bill was a champion of both International Journal and Canadian
engagement in global affairs. His experience as the Canadian minister of foreign affairs
and minister of national defence no doubt stirred his passion for many of the issues
covered in our journal. In our next volume, we hope to feature a special issue analyzing
Bill’s career. While his loss will be felt here in Canada and abroad, we want to ensure
that his legacy lives on.
Covering a range of subjects, the articles and policy briefs in this issue of Inter-
national Journal showcase our interest in ensuring coverage of the wide gamut of
pressing topics in international affairs.
Two of our articles examine international aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic,
which continues to factor into the daily lives of billions of people around the world even
as many governments have declared an end to the public health crisis. In the first article,
Aleem Bharwani, Julia Palmiano Federer, and Jack Latour provide a fascinating and
timely look at how the well-established techniques and practices of Track Two
diplomacy—the use of unofficial and informal negotiations and links as a means of
conflict resolution—could be utilized in the public health sphere. In particular, they
suggest that the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach could be utilized to resolve
various conflicts that arise when states seek to mitigate public health issues, of which
COVID-19 is but one. The second article, by Steven J. Hoffman, Isaac Weldon, and
Roojin Habibi, examines the border closure policies that were imposed by many
governments following the initial outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, and that
often remained in place for months and years afterwards. The authors offer important
insights into the political, legal, and epidemiological aspects of border controls as a
means of stopping the virus. Their findings, namely that closures were primarily a
means of serving political goals, will prove important—unfortunately—when future
governments seek out tools to confront future viruses that spread across borders.
As if the ongoing pandemic is not dispiriting enough, there is the pressing climate
crisis. In a thought-provoking and challenging piece, G ¨
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ostem explore an often-overlooked aspect of the international response to climate
change, namely the actions, not of countries in the Global North, but of a transregional
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