This week in PLoS Medicine: Does foreign policy help or hinder global health?; and more!

Read the new papers published in PLoS Medicine this week, including three Research Articles. The first article finds that better family planning, provision of safe abortion, and improved intrapartum and emergency obstetrical care could reduce maternal mortality in India by 75% in 5 years, the second article systematically reviews studies on neoadjuvant therapy and tumor response, toxicity, resection, and survival percentages in pancreatic cancer and suggests that patients with locally nonresectable tumors should be included in neoadjuvant protocols, and the third article reports the results of a cross-sectional study examining ethnic differences in precursors of type 2 diabetes among children aged 9-10 living in three UK cities.

Also this week, PLoS Medicine launches a series on Global Health Diplomacy with a Policy Forum that considers the important interplay between foreign policy and global health interests, and introduces the series, and a second Policy Forum that provides a case study of Brazil’s growing influence in international relations and global health, using as an example the country’s role and use of soft power in the negotiation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

You can comment on, annotate, and rate this week’s PLoS Medicine articles and any of the others in the archive.