Globalization and Health

It’s a cliché to say that diseases do not respect national borders, but the realities of this aphorism present serious and significant challenges to the global community. Health and disease are intimately connected with the movement of people, goods, and ideas that are emblematic of globalization. This book will examine the various dimensions of the intersections between globalization and health, calling attention to the challenges these relationships present and the opportunities for cross-border collaboration and solidarity.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1 The Globalization of Health 2 Globalization and Health in Practice 3 Institutions and the Globalization of Health 4 Transnational Activism for Health 5 Viral Sovereignty 6 Surveillance 7 The Future(s) of Globalization and Health References Index About the Author

About the Author :
Jeremy Youde is dean of the College of Liberal Arts and professor of political science at the University of Minnesota Duluth and an internationally recognized expert on global health politics. His publications include The Routledge Handbook of Global Health Security, Global Health Governance, Biopolitical Surveillance and Public Health in International Politics, and Global Health Governance in International Society. He is also chair of the Global Health Section of the International Studies Association.

Review :
Globalization is seen by many as an engine of growth, but in this outstanding book Youde (Univ. of Minnesota Duluth) acknowledges that it has also created significant health disparities. He examines the challenges posed by a globalized health system, including the temptation to neglect the role of gender or environmental degradation in health issues. Globalization—involving the collapse of time, space, and even national sovereignty—actually challenges global health and its governance. For example, Youde cites the case of SARS: little time was needed to spread the disease from China to Canada. Yet while global health institutions such as the WHO quickly contained the outbreak, China’s early reluctance to acknowledge or share information about it was credited to its sense that global health institutions challenged its national sovereignty. Likewise in 2006, when Indonesia refused to share samples of H5N1 influenza virus, it did so on grounds of national sovereignty. Perhaps the biggest challenge examined by Youde is the rise of populist or nationalist political regimes that do not accept a global world order. This is an excellent and useful text that deeply examines multiple issues not conventionally associated with health. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. This informative book provides a survey of how globalization has enabled the spread of disease and of the concurrent development of global public health practices and institutions. Youde provides an excellent and invaluable introduction to the relationship between globalization and health. Bringing together a real depth of political insight with a thorough explanation of today’s global health challenges, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in the contemporary global politics of health. Well written and peppered with vivid examples, this is an excellent primer on how globalization has affected health. Youde aptly surveys how expanded opportunities for trade and travel have knit the world together with mixed implications for health. For anyone who seeks a comprehensive understanding of the links between globalization and health, this is the book to read. Youde illustrates in rich detail the influence on health of viruses, trade, advocates, international organizations, treaties, and other entities. I appreciate especially the balance and nuance in his analysis: he avoids being trapped by ideology and instead, drawing carefully on evidence, demonstrates the ways in which globalization both advances and hampers human well-being.