Visit:

Foreign Policy Articles Google Scholar Profile.

Journal articles

* = first or senior author

International Law & Governance

* Hassan F, Abinader L, Kavanagh MM. Law and Power in COVID-19 Vaccines Negotiations:  South Africa’s Pandemic Contracts with Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies. Global Public Health. [forthcoming]

* 2025. Kavanagh MM, Abinader L, Hassan F, Friedman E. Law and Global Governance of Infectious Disease: Access to Medicines on COVID-19, AIDS, and Beyond. Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. 53 (S1): 23–28.

* 2025. Kavanagh MM, Singh R. Legal Paradigms and the Politics of Global COVID-19 Vaccine Access. In Sun H and Sunder M. Intellectual Property, COVID-19, and the Next Pandemic: Diagnosing Problems, Developing Cures. Cambridge University Press.  (adapted from vaccine politics)

* 2024. Halabi S, Gostin L, Egbokhare O, Kavanagh MM. Global Health Law for a Safer and Fairer World. New England Journal of Medicine. 390 (20): 1925-1931.  

* 2024. Fischer SE, Vitale L, Agutu AL, Kavanagh MM. Intellectual Property and the Politics of Public Good during COVID-19: Framing Law, Institutions, and Ideas during TRIPS Waiver Negotiations at the WTO. Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. 49 (1): 9-42.    

2024. Strobeyko A, Atuire CA, Faden R, Ho CW, Ido V, Kamal-Yanni, M, Kavanagh MM, Littler K, Paremoer L, Phaelan AL, Storeng KT, Upshur R, Moon S. Equitable Access to Pandemic Products Demands Stronger Public Governance. The Lancet. 404 (10467): 2030-2032.  

* 2023. Kavanagh MM, Wenham C, Massard da Fonseca E, Helfer LR, Nyukuri E, Maleche A, Halabi SF, Radhakrishnan A, Waris A. Increasing Compliance with International Pandemic Law: international relations and new global health agreements. The Lancet. 402(10407): 1097-1106.

* 2023. Kavanagh MM, Singh R. Vaccine Politics: Law and Inequality in the Pandemic Response to COVID-19. Global Policy. 14 (2): 229-246.  

* 2023. Kavanagh MM, Abinader LG, Banda A. Equity and Technology in the Pandemic Treaty. BMJ. 383:2533.    

* 2021 Kavanagh MM, Gostin LO, Sunder M. Sharing Technology and Vaccine Doses to Address Global Vaccine Inequity and End the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA. 326 (3):219-220.   

* 2021. Kavanagh MM, Singh R, Pillinger M. Playing Politics: The World Health Organization’s Response to COVID-19. In: Greer, SL et al. Coronavirus Politics: The Comparative Politics and Policy of COVID-19. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 35.

2021. Wenham C, Kavanagh MM, Phelan A, Rushton S, Voss M, Halabi S, Eccleston-Turner M, Pillinger M. Problems with Traffic Light Approaches to Public Health Emergencies of International Concern. The Lancet. 397(10287):1856-1858.  

* 2020. Kavanagh MM, Erondu NA, Tomori O, Dzau VJ, Okiro EA, Maleche A, Aniebo IC, Rugege U, Holmes CB, Gostin LO. Access to Lifesaving Medical Resources for African Countries: COVID-19 testing and response, ethics, and politics. The Lancet. 395(10238):1735-1738.  

* 2020. Gostin LO, Koh HH, Williams M, Hamburg MA, Benjamin G, Foege WH, Davidson P, Bradley EH, Barry M, Koplan JP, Periago MFR, El Sadr W, Kurth A, Vermund SH, Kavanagh MM. US Withdrawal from WHO is Unlawful and Threatens Global and US Health and Security. The Lancet. 2020 Aug 1;396(10247):293-295.  

* 2019.Tomori O, Durrheim D, Gostin L, Kavanagh MM. Ebola in North Kivu, DR Congo - is it an undeclared public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)? Travel Medicine & Infectious Disease. 29:1-3.  

2019. Gostin LO, Kavanagh MM, Cameron E. Ebola and War in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Avoiding Failure and Thinking Ahead. JAMA. 321(3):243-244.    

* 2014. Kavanagh MM. The politics and epidemiology of transition: PEPFAR and AIDS in South Africa. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. 65(3):247-50.  

* 2014. Kavanagh MM, Baker BK. Governance and transparency at PEPFAR. Lancet Global Health. 2(1):e13-4.    

Human Rights & Ethics

* 2025.  Kavanagh MM, Srivatsan V, Anam FR, Bok L, Abinader LG, Sharma A,  Grant C,  Chen Y, Lynch S. Global Legal Environment for LGBTQ+ Sexuality: 194 Country Study. Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. 53(1): 115–133

* 2024. Kavanagh MM, Radakrishnan A, Unnikrishnan V, Gometto G, Kane C, Friedman EA, Srivatsan V, Abinader LG, Campbell J.  Laws for Health and Care Worker Protection and Rights: A study of 182 countries.PLOS Global Public Health. 4 (12): e0003767.

* 2021. Kavanagh MM, Agbla SC, Joy M, Aneja K, Pillinger M, Case A, Erondu NA, Erkkola T, Graeden E. Law, criminalisation and HIV in the world: have countries that criminalise achieved more or less successful pandemic response? BMJ Global Health. 6 (8): e006315. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006315.  

* 2020. Kavanagh MM, Gostin LO, Stephens J. Tuberculosis, human rights, and law reform: Addressing the lack of progress in the global tuberculosis response. PLOS Medicine. 17(10):e1003324. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003324.  

* 2018. Kavanagh MM, Baral SD, Milanga M, Sugarman J. Biometrics and public health surveillance in criminalised and key populations: policy, ethics, and human rights considerations. The Lancet HIV. S2352-3018(18)30243-1. doi: 10.1016/S2352-3018(18)30243-1.  

2018. Meier BM, Evans DP, Kavanagh MM, Keralis JM, Armas-Cardona G. Human Rights in Public Health: Deepening Engagement at a Critical Time. Health & Human Rights. 20(2):85-91.  

* 2015. Kavanagh M, Cohn J, Mabote L, Meier BM, Williams B, Russell A, Sikwese K, Baker B. Evolving Human Rights and the Science of Antiretroviral Medicine. Health & Human Rights. 17(1):E76-90.  

2015. Meier BM, Gelpi A, Kavanagh MM, Forman L, Amon JJ. Employing human rights frameworks to realize access to an HIV cure. Journal of the International AIDS Society. 18(1):20305. doi: 10.7448/IAS.18.1.20305.  

* 2004. Kavanagh MM. Rewriting the Legal Family: Beyond Exclusivity to a Care-Based Standard. Yale Journal of Law & Feminism. 16:83.

Political Institutions

* 2021. Kavanagh MM, Parish K, Gupta S. Drivers of health policy adoption: a political economy of HIV treatment policy. Policy & Politics. 49 (3): 343. doi: 10.1332/030557321X16108172938639.

* 2020. Kavanagh MM, Singh R. Democracy, Capacity, and Coercion in Pandemic Response: COVID-19 in Comparative Political Perspective. Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. 45(6): 997-1012. doi: 10.1215/03616878-8641530.

* 2020. Kavanagh MM. Authoritarianism, outbreaks, and information politics. Lancet Public Health. 5(3):e135-e136. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30030-X.

* 2020. Kavanagh MM. US elections and a foreign policy for pandemics. The Lancet Public Health. 5(10):e517-e518. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30211-5.  

* 2019. Kavanagh MM, Chen L. Governance and Health Aid from the Global Fund: Effects Beyond Fighting Disease. Annals of Global Health. 85(1):69.  

* 2019. Kavanagh MM, Dubula-Majola V. Policy Change and Micro-Politics in Global Health Aid: HIV in South Africa. Health Policy and Planning. 34(1):1-11.    

* 2019. Russell A, Luba M, Mwehonge K, Lusimbo R, Milanga M, Kavanagh MM. Civil Society Demand for Accountability to Achieve the 90-90-90 Targets: lessons from Eastern and Southern Africa. Current Opinion in HIV AIDS. 14(1):41-45.    

* 2016.  Kavanagh MM. The Right to Health: institutional effects of constitutional provisions on health outcomes. Studies In Comparative International Development. 51:328-64.  

Public Health

* 2025. Byanyima W, Bekker LG, Kavanagh MM. Long-Acting HIV Medicines and the Pandemic Inequality Cycle. New England Journal of Medicine. 392 (1): 90.

* 2025. Katz IT, Thomson DR, Ravishankar S, Otwombe K, Macarayan ER, Novak C, Schulte AR, Atwood S, Woskie LR, Siegel Z, Agins BD, Dietrich J, Johnson BT, Stevens EJ, Butler LM,  Kavanagh MM. Intersectional forces of urban inequality and the global HIV pandemic: a retrospective analysis. BMJ Global Health. 10(4): 14750.

* 2023. Ataguba JE, Birungi C, Cunial S, Kavanagh MM. Income inequality and pandemics: insights from HIV/AIDS and COVID-19-a multicountry observational study. BMJ Global Health. 8 (9): e013703.  

2023. Lamontagne E, Nyako HY, Enemo A, Sunday A, Muhammad A, Abdullah RM, Okiwu H, Undelikwo V, Ogbozor P, Amusan O, Alaba O, Undelikwo G, Takpa K, Ashefor G, Kavanagh M, Foláyan MNO. The health inequity and socioeconomic inequality faced by adolescent girls and women on the move living with or at high risk of HIV infection, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. BMJ Global Health. 8 (12): e012116. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2023-012116.  

2023. Lyons CE, Twahirwa Rwema JO, Makofane K, Diouf D, Mfochive Njindam I, Ba I, Kouame A, Tamoufe U, Cham B, Aliu Djaló M, Obodou EP, Karita E, Simplice A, Nowak RG, Crowell TA, Matse S, Kouanda S, Enama JP, Kavanagh MM, Millett GA, Beyrer C, Murray S, Baral S. Associations between punitive policies and legal barriers to consensual same-sex sexual acts and HIV among gay men and other men who have sex with men in sub-Saharan Africa: a multicountry, respondent-driven sampling survey. Lancet HIV. 10 (3): e186-e194.  

2023. Torres-Rueda S, Terris-Prestholt F, Gafos M, Indravudh PP, Giddings R, Bozzani F, Quaife M, Ghazaryan L, Mann C, Osborne C, Kavanagh MM, Godfrey-Faussett P, Medley G, Malhotra S. Health Economics Research on Non-surgical Biomedical HIV Prevention: Identifying Gaps and Proposing a Way Forward. Pharmacoeconomics. 41 (7): 787-802.   

2021. Oh J, Lee HY, Khuong QL, Markuns JF, Bullen C, Barrios OEA, Hwang SS, Suh YS, McCool J, Kachur SP, Chan CC, Kwon S, Kondo N, Hoang VM, Moon JR, Rostila M, Norheim OF, You M, Withers M, Li M, Lee EJ, Benski C, Park S, Nam EW, Gottschalk K, Kavanagh MM, Tran TGH, Lee JK, Subramanian SV, McKee M, Gostin LO. Mobility restrictions were associated with reductions in COVID-19 incidence early in the pandemic: evidence from a real-time evaluation in 34 countries. Scientific Reports, 11 (1):13717. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-92766-z.  

* 2021. Kavanagh MM, Norato LF, Friedman EA, Armbrister AN. Planning for health equity in the Americas: an analysis of national health plans. Pan American Journal of Public Health. 45:e29. doi: 10.26633/RPSP.2021.29.  

* 2020. Kavanagh MM, Katz IT, Holmes CB. Reckoning with mortality: global health, HIV, and the politics of data. The Lancet. 396(10246):288-290. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31046-1.

2019. Friedman EA, Gostin LO, Kavanagh MM, Periago MR, Marmot M, Coates A, Binagwaho A, Mukherjee J, Chowdhury M, Robinson T, Veloso VG, Wang C, Were M. Putting health equity at heart of universal coverage: the need for national programmes of action. BMJ. 367:l5901. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l5901.

* 2019. Kavanagh M, Thirumurthy H, Katz R, Ebi K, Beyrer C, Headley J, Holmes CB, Collins C, Gostin LO. Ending Pandemics: US Foreign Policy to Mitigate Today’s Major Killers, Tomorrow’s Outbreaks, and the Health Impacts of Climate Change. Journal of International Affairs. Jstor: 26872778

2017. Schwartz SR, Kavanagh MM, Sugarman J, Solomon SS, Njindam IM, Rebe K, Quinn TC, Toure-Kane C, Beyrer C, Baral S. HIV viral load monitoring among key populations in low- and middle-income countries: challenges and opportunities. Journal of the International AIDS Society. 20 Suppl 7(Suppl 7):e25003. doi: 10.1002/jia2.25003.  

* 2022. Kavanagh MM. To end AIDS and COVID-19, end inequalities. African Journal of AIDS Research. 21(2):v-vi. doi: 10.2989/16085906.2022.2106066.  

* 2022. Kavanagh MM. Learn from COVID: Gates's pandemic prescription. Nature. 606(7914):457-8.

* 2022. Byanyima W, Kavanagh MM. Equalizing the response to AIDS and other pandemics. PLOS Global Public Health. 2(12):e0001370. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001370.  

* 2021. Kavanagh MM, Nygren-Krug H. Ending AIDS and stopping pandemics through closing inequalities. American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. 2021 Dec 1;321(6):L1055-L1056. doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00463.2021.

2021. Wenham C, Kavanagh M, Torres I, Yamey G. Preparing for the next pandemic. BMJ. 373:n1295.

2019. Gostin LO, Kavanagh MM. The ethics of breastfeeding by women living with HIV/AIDS: A concrete proposal for reforming department of health and human services recommendations. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. 47(1):161-4.

* 2019. Gostin L, Phelan A, Coutinho AG, Eccleston-Turner M, Erondu N, Filani O, Inglesby T, Katz R, Maleche A, Nuzzo JB, Tomori O, Kavanagh MM. Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: time to sound a global alert? The Lancet. 393(10172):617-620. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30243-0.

* 2015. Kavanagh MM, Headley J, Russell A. Political factors behind US global AIDS programmes slow-down. The Lancet. 385(9966):419-20. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)62393-X.  

2015. Beyrer C, Birx DL, Bekker LG, Barré-Sinoussi F, Cahn P, Dybul MR, Eholié SP, * Kavanagh MM (corresponding), Katabira ET, Lundgren JD, Mworeko L. The Vancouver Consensus: antiretroviral medicines, medical evidence, and political will. The Lancet. 386 (9993): 505-7. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61458-1.  

2011.   Kavanagh M and Thorpe M. PEPFAR’s Declining Investment in Treatment, Health Affairs Forefront.

Community Accountability Models

2024. Rambau N, Policar S, Sharp AR, Lankiewicz, Nsubuga A, Chimhanda L, Yawa A, Mwehonge K, Tobaiwa DD, Alfred GM, Kavanagh MM, Russell A, Baptiste S, Kalama OM, RM Marte, Ledan N, Honermann B, Lauer K, Rafif N, Perez S, Sun G, Grimsrud A, Sprague L, Mienies K. Power, data, and social accountability: Defining a community-led monitoring model for strengthened health service delivery. Journal of the International AIDS Society. 27(11): e26374. DOI: 10.1002/jia2.26374.

* 2024. Sharp AR, Mpofu N, Lankiewicz E, Ajonye B, Rambau NP, Dringus S, Honermann B, Erondu N, Russell A, Mwehonge K, Aguiar C, Ledan N, Kavanagh M. Facilitators and barriers to community-led monitoring of health programs: Qualitative evidence from the global implementation landscape.PLOS Global Public Health. 4 (6): e0003293.

* 2023. Policar S, Sharp A, Isidor Hyppolite J, Alfred GM, Steide E, Lucien L, Ledan N, Kavanagh M. Drivers of HIV treatment interruption: Early findings from community-led monitoring program in Haiti. PLOS One. 18 (12): e0295023. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295023.  

* 2022. Byanyima W, Lauterbach K, Kavanagh MM. Community pandemic response: the importance of action led by communities and the public sector. The Lancet. 2023 Jan 28;401(10373):253-255. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02575-2.

Racism & Structural Discrimination

2023. Erondu NA, Mofokeng T, Kavanagh MM, Matache M, Bosha SL. Towards anti-racist policies and strategies to reduce poor health outcomes in racialised communities. The Lancet. 401(10391): 1834-1836. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00910-8.  

Methods

* 2020.  Kavanagh MM, Meier BM, Pillinger M, Huffstetler H, Burris S. Global Policy Surveillance: Creating and Using Comparative National Data on Health Law and Policy. American Journal of Public Health. 110(12): 1805-1810.  

* 2020.  Kavanagh MM, Graeden E, Pillinger M, Singh R, Eaneff S, Bendaud V, Gustav R, Erkkola T. Understanding and comparing HIV-related law and policy environments: cross-national data and accountability for the global AIDS response. BMJ Global Health. 5(9): e003695. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003695.  

Foreign Policy  (editor reviewed)

2025.  Kavanagh M. South Africa, G20, and Racial Politics. World Politics Review.

2025.  Kavanagh M. WHO Withdrawal Could Be a Disaster—or an Opportunity. Foreign Policy. 

2025.   Kavanagh M & Abinader, LG.  Abolishing USAID Is Both Unconstitutional and Disastrous.  Foreign Policy.

2024.   Kavanagh M. How The WTO Failed the World in Covid. Foreign Policy.

2021.  Kavanagh M, Pillinger M, Singh R, Ginsbach K. To Democratize Vaccine Access, Democratize Production. Foreign Policy. 

2020.  Eric A. Friedman, Lawrence O. Gostin, Matthew M. Kavanagh, John T. Monahan, Harold Hongju Koh. Joining COVAX Could Save American Lives. Foreign Policy.

2020.  Kavanagh M and Pillinger M. Leaving the WHO & American Public Health. Foreign Policy.

2020.  Kavanagh M. Transparency and Testing Work Better Than Coercion in Coronavirus Battle. Foreign Policy.  

2019.  Kavanagh M. Pandemics & Presidential Politics: Ignoring One of the World’s Biggest Looming Threats. Foreign Policy.  

2019.  Kavanagh M. Good Health Supports Good Governance. Foreign Policy.  

2014.  Kavanagh M and Collins C. Don’t Put The Brakes On Ending AIDS: An Analysis of U.S. Aid Impact. Health Affairs Forefront. 10 (1377).  

2013.  Kavanagh M. TRIPping Up Least Developed Countries on Medicines, Green Tech, and Textbooks? Intellectual Property & WTO Rules. Foreign Policy in Focus.

Book Reviews

* 2018. Kavanagh MM, Gostin LO. The World Health Organization’s Momentous Struggle to Respond to the AIDS Pandemic. American Journal of Public Health. 108(10):1272–3. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304653.

* 2019. Kavanagh MM, Gostin LO. Justice, Science, and HIV: Challenging HIV Criminalization. American Journal of Public Health. 2019 Nov;109(11):1480–1. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305331.