Infectious diseases represent one of the greatest threats to global health and security. The failures of the Ebola crisis demonstrated that we remain woefully unprepared, but they also served as a wake-up call at the highest levels of policymaking across nations. The twelve-country Commission on a Global Health Risk Framework for the Future has urgently recommended an international commitment to prevent, diagnose, and treat infectious diseases by galvanizing adequate financial resources, strengthening international leadership, reinforcing the public health infrastructure, and building up the scientific armory. How can a divided world work together to stop the next outbreak? Could the effort become a long-awaited opportunity to reach common ground?