| Table of Contents
Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Global Issues
Eighth Edition
UNIT: Global Population Issue: Is Global Aging a Major Problem? YES: Neil Howe and Richard Jackson, from “Global Aging and the Crisis of the 2020s,” Current History (January 2011) NO: Calestous Juma, from “Why We Need Innovation to Prepare for the Global Aging Society,” Forbes (October 3, 2012), Forbes.com Neil Howe and Richard Jackson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies argue that global population aging is likely to have a profound and negative effect on global economic growth, living standards and conditions, and “the shape of the world order,” particularly affecting China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, and countries of the West. Harvard Professor Calestous Juma suggests that while technology alone will not be adequate to address elderly needs, utilizing technological advances in fields like engineering and medicine will likely result in allowing the elderly to be an asset rather than a burden. Issue: Does Global Urbanization Lead Primarily to Undesirable Consequences? YES: Divya Abhat et al., from “Cities of the Future: Today’s ‘Mega-Cities’ Are Overcrowded and Environmentally Stressed,” E/The Environmental Magazine (September/October 2005) NO: United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, from “Productivity and the Prosperity of Cities,” in State of the World’s Cities 2012/2013 (2012), www.unhabitat.org Divya Abhat, editor of E/The Environmental Magazine, and colleagues suggest that the world’s cities suffer from environmental ills, among them pollution, poverty, fresh water shortages, and disease. The 2012 UN-Habitat report suggests that as countries become more urbanized, national productivity increases, particularly in high- and middle-income countries. Particularly important is managing urban growth in such a way as to avoid negative consequences for future economic growth. UNIT: Global Resources and the Environment Issue: Should Environmentalists Continue to Be Alarmists? Yes: Paul B. Farrell, from “The Coming Population Wars: A 12-Bomb Equation—Can Gates’ Billionaires Club Stop These Inevitable Self-Destruct Triggers?” MarketWatch (September 29, 2009) No: Ronald Bailey, from “Our Uncrowded Planet,” The American (October 1, 2009) Paul Farrell, an investing and personal finance columnist for CBS MarketWatch, describes 12 global time-bombs put forth by Jared Diamond, an environmental biologist. The two biggest are the overpopulation multiplier (population will increase 23 percent before it peaks) and the population impact monitor (third-world citizens will adopt much higher first-world consumption patterns). Ronald Bailey, Reason magazine’s science correspondent, takes Farrell to task on each of his 12 time-bombs, arguing that current trends do not “portend a looming population apocalypse.” Issue: Will the World Be Able to Feed Itself in the Foreseeable Future? YES: H. Charles J. Godfray et al., from “Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People,” Science (vol. 327, pp. 812–818, 2010) NO: Lester Brown, from “The Great Food Crisis of 2011: It’s Real and It’s Not Going Away Anytime Soon,” Foreign Policy (January 10, 2011) Charles Godfray, Oxford University professor, and his team suggest that the proportion of the world’s population that is hungry has decreased over the past half-century as a consequence of food production increases, thus boding well for the next 40 years despite a number of important challenges. Lester Brown, founder and president of Earth Policy Institute, argues that unlike in the past when weather was the culprit, the spike in food prices is now caused by trends on both sides of the food supply/demand equation that are causing higher food prices. Issue: Is the Threat of Global Warming Real? YES: Bill McKibben, from “Think Again: Climate Change,” Foreign Policy (January/February 2009) NO: Richard Lindzen, from “A Case Against Precipitous Climate Action,” The Global Warming Foundation (January 15, 2011) Bill McKibben, author of numerous books on ecological issues, addresses seven myths about climate change, arguing that the global community must act now if it is to save the earth from a climate catastrophe. Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at MIT, cautions us not to act too hastily in addressing assumed climate change as the evidence does not support such a conclusion or the need for hysteria. Issue: Can the Global Community Successfully Confront the Global Water Shortage? YES: William Wheeler, from “Global Water Crisis: Too Little, Too Much, or Lack of a Plan?” The Christian Science Monitor (December 2, 2012) NO: Stewart M. Patrick, from “The Coming Global Water Crisis,” The Atlantic (May 9, 2012) William Wheeler, in The Christian Science Monitor cover story, while spelling out the factors contributing to global water shortage, concludes that these pessimistic scenarios may be avoided, particularly by increased agricultural efficiency and better economics. Stewart Patrick of the Council on Foreign Relations discusses why the “simultaneous ubiquity and scarcity of water” is one of today’s ironies, pointing to dramatically increased demand, particularly in the poorer regions of the globe, while acknowledging that solutions to the problem lie in better water management. UNIT: Expanding Global Forces and Movements Issue: Can the Global Community “Win” the Drug War? YES: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, from World Drug Report 2012 (United Nations Publications, 2012) NO: Global Commission on Drug Policy, from “War on Drugs: Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy” (June 2011) This 2012 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime suggests that efforts are paying off as the world’s supply of the two main problem drugs, heroin and cocaine, continues to decline. According to the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the “global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world,” and thus other approaches such as ending the criminalization of no-harm-to-others drugs, implementing new governmental models of regulation, offering health and treatments services, and also focusing on preventing initial use by young people should be considered. Issue: Is the International Community Adequately Prepared to Address Global Health Pandemics? YES: The Council on Foreign Relations, from “The Global Health Regime,” The Council on Foreign Relations Issue Brief (May 7, 2013) NO: Heath A. Kelly et al., from “We Should Not Be Complacent About Our Population-Based Public Health Response to the First Influenza Pandemic of the 21st Century,” BMC Public Health (vol. 11, no. 78, 2011) The Council on Foreign Relations’ overall assessment suggests that the global health regime has an “unprecedented focus and funding,” as the institutional landscape has an array of new players who are more diverse and better funded than before, yet several major weaknesses are apparent. Heath A. Kelly et al., at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, suggest that the lessons of the global community’s dealing with the H1N1 virus in 2009 show that its strategies “could not control the spread” of the virus. Issue: Do Adequate Strategies Exist to Combat Human Trafficking? YES: Luis CdeBaca, from “A Decade in Review, A Decade Before Us: Celebrating Successes and Developing New Strategies at the 10th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act,” speech at 2010 Freedom Network Conference, Washington, DC (U.S. Department of State, March 18, 2008) NO: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, from Global Report of Trafficking in Persons 2012 (United Nations Publications, 2012) Luis CdeBaca, ambassador-at-large for the U.S. Department of State, reported in a speech at the Freedom Network Conference that “appreciable progress” has been made in understanding the issue of human trafficking and thus the global community is in “the early stages of positive change” in addressing the issue. This 2012 UN report suggests that while progress has been made in creating awareness of the problem of human trafficking throughout much of the globe, only limited progress has been made in convictions of those guilty of trafficking. Issue: Is the International Community Making Progress in Addressing Natural Disasters? YES: The United Nations, from “Risk and Poverty in a Changing Climate: Invest Today for a Safer Tomorrow,” Summary and Recommendations: 2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (United Nations Publications, 2009) NO: David Rothkopf, from “Averting Disaster: Calamities Like the Haiti Quake Aren’t Just Predictable—They’re Preventable,” Newsweek (January 25, 2010) The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat, a unit within the United Nations, suggests that countries are making “significant progress” in strengthening their capacities to address past deficiencies and gaps in their disaster preparedness and response. At the center of progress is the plan, Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015, which is aimed at reducing human and nonhuman disaster losses. David Rothkopf, president of Garten Rothkopf (an international consulting agency) and a member of former president Bill Clinton’s international trade team, argues that the efforts of international organizations to prevent natural disasters from escalating into megadisasters “have fallen short of what is required.” Issue: Is the International Community Making Effective Progress in Securing Global Human Rights? YES: The Council on Foreign Relations, from “The Global Human Rights Regime,” The Council on Foreign Relations (May 11, 2012) NO: Amnesty International, from Amnesty International USA (Amnesty International, London, 2012) The Council on Foreign Relations, an independent nonpartisan and essentially American think tank, in an Issue Brief summarizes the development of an elaborate global system of governmental and nongovernmental organizations developed primarily over the past few decades to promote human rights throughout the world, while recognizing that the task is still far from complete. Amnesty International’s annual report on the state of human rights around the world suggests major failures in all regions (“Failed leadership has gone global in the last year …”), with specific restrictions on free speech in at least 91 countries and cases of torture and other ill-treatment in over 101 countries. UNIT: Economic and Social Aspects of Globalization Issue: Is the Global Economic Crisis a Failure of Capitalism? YES: John Bellamy Foster, from “A Failed Economic System: The World Crisis of Capitalist Globalization,” Monthly Review (March 1, 2010) NO: Dani Rodrik, from “Coming Soon: Capitalism 3.0,” Taipei Times (February 11, 2009) John Bellamy Foster argues that the global financial and economic crisis of 2008 till today is a function of real structural contradictions and issues within the capitalist order and it is manifested in many countries including China. He does not surmise that capitalism is dead but he does postulate that it must undergo fundamental change to address the problems that currently plague it. Dani Rodrik, a professor of international political economy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, contends that the current economic downturn is not a sign of capitalism’s failure but rather its need for reinvention and adaptation. Rodrik argues that this is precisely why capitalism will survive and thrive, because it is so changeable based on new trends and conditions. Issue: Does Globalization Increase Inequity? YES: Vandana Shiva, from “Globalization and Poverty,” an interview with Gary Null of NPR, Global Research (December 30, 2008) NO: Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz, from “With Little Notice, Globalization Reduced Poverty,” YaleGlobal Online (July 5, 2011) Dr. Vandana Shiva argues that globalization increases poverty and inequity because the rules of the game are rigged in favor of those countries and corporations who produce products and extract resources. She contends that only through significant change can that reality be altered and addressed. Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz contend that by looking at objective data as it relates to poverty rates and the availability of food and resources, poverty rates across the globe are falling and more people are being elevated into lower and middle class than ever before. Issue: Is Social Media Becoming the Most Powerful Force in Global Politics? YES: Clay Shirky, from “The Net Advantage,” Prospect (December 11, 2009) NO: Malcolm Gladwell, from “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted,” The New Yorker (October 4, 2010) Clay Shirky argues that social media has and will empower individuals and groups in profound ways giving political movements power, reach, and access. He contends that it will change the power dynamic between these groups and the state (often the object if not adversary of political action) and make insurrection and revolution more likely to occur and potentially to succeed. Malcolm Gladwell contends that social media, while intriguing and fast, is another tool of... |
