By centering the analysis on socialist countries and their global relations, we aim to further our fundamental understanding on the history of the emergence of global health in the post-Cold War order. Socialist networks of international solidarity and collectivity shaped health care systems, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and knowledge networks in ways that have been rendered invisible in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of neoliberal frameworks, and the HIV epidemic, which animated the rise of global health initiatives driven by “the West.” We will present examples from the four research streams that link local, national and international histories and which underpin our project: problematizing the centrality of international organizations and philanthropic ventures, through which global health master narratives are constructed, to integrate networks and alternative international structures into how we understand international and global health;  healthcare solutions, public health structures and state planning in health and medicine, exposing the flow of ideas and models, negotiations and contestations through a transnational political history of health; medical technology development and distribution speaking to the importance of socialist networks, production models, and trade relations that contributed to a global distribution of medical goods; finally, aid and technical assistance integrating socialist medical internationalism, hospital building projects and expert exchange.