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Investing in health worldwide is a collective security strategy, write Martin McKee , Michel Kazatchkine , and Stefano Vella The Munich Security Conference’s 2026 report on international security policy barely mentions health.1 Yet, if there was one fundamental lesson to be learnt from the covid-19 pandemic, it was that health is a fundamental pillar of national and regional security. Unless health is fully recognised and embedded as a strategic security priority, the world will remain dangerously exposed to shocks that can rapidly escalate into broader instability. In an era defined by overlapping and mutually reinforcing crises, including pandemics, climate driven disasters, armed conflict, and economic volatility, health is an unavoidable determinant of geopolitical stability.2 The evidence is clear: threats to population health directly undermine economic resilience, the legitimacy of governments, and societal cohesion. Despite this, global investment in and political attention to health have declined just as vulnerabilities deepen. The relationship between health and security has long been recognised. In 2000, the UN Security Council formally acknowledged HIV/AIDS as a threat to peace …