How do national identities matter in global health? Our paper addresses this question through a study of Kenya’s vaccine diplomacy during the Covid-19 pandemic. It combines critical perspectives, challenging the neglect of African agency in international relations (IR), with constructivist approaches highlighting the importance of discourse in the exercise of agency. The insight that identity is an important resource in the realization of foreign policy goals is confirmed by our review of interventions by senior Kenyan leaders, as well as ministries and official bodies, concerned with vaccine procurement during the pandemic. Moreover, this material shows that identity is not pre-given, but rather performed in discourse, being adapted and renewed in speeches, briefings, policy documents, and so on. Identities are plural, not singular, drawing on historic and cultural resources proper to individual states. This allows us to link the range of identities performed during the Covid-19 pandemic to earlier moments in Kenya’s diplomatic history, noting the continued pertinence of its image, variously, as ‘an island of stability’, ‘a good global health citizen’, ‘a member of the pan-African community of states’, and ‘an active contributor to IR’.

中文翻译：

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全球卫生中的国家认同：Covid-19 大流行期间肯尼亚的疫苗外交

国家身份对全球健康有何影响？我们的论文通过对 Covid-19 大流行期间肯尼亚疫苗外交的研究来解决这个问题。它结合了批判性的观点，挑战了国际关系（IR）中非洲机构的忽视，与强调话语在行使机构中的重要性的建构主义方法。我们对肯尼亚高级领导人以及与大流行期间疫苗采购有关的部委和官方机构的干预措施进行的审查证实了身份是实现外交政策目标的重要资源的见解。此外，这些材料表明，身份不是预先给定的，而是在话语中表现出来的，在演讲、简报、政策文件等中进行调整和更新。身份是复数的，而不是单数的，利用各个国家特有的历史和文化资源。这使我们能够将 Covid-19 大流行期间表现出的一系列身份与肯尼亚外交历史的早期时刻联系起来，并注意到其形象的持续相关性，如“稳定之岛”、“良好的全球健康公民”、 “泛非国家共同体的成员”和“国际关系的积极贡献者”。