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Students of globalization often quickly discover that different authors use the term “globalization” to describe many different phenomena. In some cases, the term is used so widely that that it can mean almost any international event or relationship, and pertain to all kinds of economic, social, political, and cultural changes. Of course, when a term is defined so broadly that it encompasses everything, it tends to end up meaning nothing, and becomes useless as a descriptive term.
For this reason, Globalization101.org has described globalization rather narrowly, as “the acceleration and intensification of economic interaction between the people, companies, and governments of different nations,” recognizing that this is a process driven by both technology and government policy.
The previous section contained a list of ways that international public health is affected by globalization. Keeping in mind this precise definition of globalization, one may ask whether the concerns stated earlier are in fact globalization issues, or merely health issues that have global significance. Looking at that list again, we can see that some of them fall into the first category, some into the second, and others somewhere in between:
- Increased international travel
- Increased transit of goods
- Food-borne illnesses
- Urbanization
- Climate change
- Localized environmental concerns
- Increased drug resistance by microbes
- Breakdowns in public health systems
Think about each of these concerns separately. To what extent are these issues the results of policy decisions that pertain to globalization? How many are due to increased trade and investment? Which of them have been driven by technology? Which of these can be thought of as results of globalization?
For example, the items we have arrayed at the top of this list, such as increased international travel, the transit of goods, and food-borne illnesses, are clearly items that are directly related to globalization. But as you move down this list, you can see that the correlation between these issues and the increasing economic linkages that we refer to as globalization grows weaker.
For example, the breakdown of the Russian public health system is more related to that country’s difficult transition from a controlled socialist economy to a democratic market one. And the increasing drug resistance of diseases is due to the global use (and abuse) of life-saving anti-microbial medicines.
To be sure, a link to globalization can be found within each of these issues. But it would be difficult to argue that a reversal of globalization would lead to an improvement of these problems. For instance, let us imagine that the world trading system suffered a serious breakdown; that trade agreements were scrapped and nations began to raise barriers to international trade and investment, even cutting cross-border communications and travel.
While the set of problems relating to the movement of people and goods would certainly be much improved, these changes would do little or nothing to counter the trend toward urbanization or microbial resistance. In many cases, changes might actually exacerbate these problems.