Global pandemic governance: A multilevel concept for managing pandemic crises worldwide

This article examines how countries can effectively respond to global health pandemics in six stages. Previous research has assumed that human social and economic activities affect the spread of viral infectious diseases, and it has been noted that countries fight global pandemics independently, making the response inefficient. As no comprehensive governing guidelines exist for managing global public health pandemics, this article argues for the need for an international, integrated governance framework, offering theoretical reflections on a novel integrated, multilevel governance concept, the Global Governance of Pandemic Crises (GGPC), which is centered around crisis management theory at an international level. The article differentiates four pandemic governance processes—risk, emergence, recovery, and goal governance—in six pandemic periods that are linked to different processes of public health pandemic governance. The GGPC concept may prove useful to organisations responsible for governing pandemics and implementing relevant measures in affected countries. • Responding to global health pandemics in six stages. • Advocates the need for international, integrated governance framework. • Global Governance of Pandemic Crises centered on crisis management theory. • Useful to organisations implementing pandemic control measures in affected areas.