Global Health, Security, and Environmental Issues: Key Concepts and Cases

Global trend in malaria deaths (2000-2009)

Global decrease in malaria deaths

Global trend in Guinea worm cases (1986-2015)

Decrease from ~3.5 million cases in 1986 to 22 cases in 2015

Trend in HIV/AIDS infection rates in Sub-Saharan Africa (1990-2009)

Increasing rates over that period

Security (definition)

State of being free from danger or threat; actions aimed at protection from harm

Security tied to nation-state-borders

Security traditionally depends on border control and state's monopoly on violence to protect citizens from external threats

Treaty of Westphalia significance

Established the modern nation-state system and linked sovereignty to defined borders

Governmentality

The use of political-economic power/knowledge to govern populations as a fundamental aspect of modern state power

Factors that led to securitization Cold War end, post-9/11, cyber threats, influence campaigns, terrorism, failed states — global insecurity discourse rose

Example of security issue: South China Sea

Sovereignty disputes over maritime zones; China building artificial islands & claiming maritime control

Example of security issue: NBA/China free-speech dispute

Censorship & market influence by states over international cultural/ commercial actors

Example of security issue: Chinese land investment abroad

Concerns about foreign influence, control over strategic land/agriculture, proximity to military zones

Costs of border securitization over time

Costs rising annually as states invest more in border enforcement and surveillance

Characteristics of maritime border security

Territorial sea + Exclusive Economic Zones; control over water, seabed, resources, airspace

Impact of Chinese land investment on US property laws

Stimulates laws restricting foreign ownership due to perceived national security threat ("Yellow Peril" logic)

Diaspora institutions & Global China (as per Jiaqi Liu)

Diasporas and state actors form transborder symbiotic relationships influencing global state-society dynamics

Global China definition

Global reach of China's political-economic influence via diaspora networks & local official competition

State-in-Society concept

Framework where state and societal actors (like diasporas) mutually depend and shape policy, not separate spheres

Peak Oil theory (who & what)

Predicted by M. King Hubbert; argued oil production follows bell curve and would peak (US in ~1970)

Events disproving Peak Oil predictions

Alaskan oil discovery + fracking boom (post-2010) disproved Hubbert's peak for US

Top three countries by oil reserves

Saudi Arabia; Venezuela; Canada

Top three countries by current oil production

United States; Saudi Arabia; Russia

Trend in US coal use for electricity generation

Dropping — coal declining in share due to climate concerns & shift to cleaner energy

Decoupling economic growth and GHG emissions

Example of a country (like Sweden) where economic growth continues while emissions stabilize or decrease

Definition of industrial agriculture

Large-scale, mechanized, capital-intensive farming with monoculture, chemical inputs, corporate control

Industrial agriculture & Fordist production

Industrial agriculture applies Fordist production logic to farming: standardization, high volume, mechanization

How industrial agriculture transformed Earth's landscapes

Converted diverse ecosystems into monocultures, reshaped land use, increased chemical/ resource use

Global human population growth & urbanization patterns

Massive population growth and urbanization; cities increasingly dependent on external food supply from hinterlands

How the world feeds cities

Using hinterlands—rural and global supply chains—to produce food and resources consumed by urban populations

Definition of Plantationocene

Historical geological/social epoch shaped by plantation-based production systems and slavery's environmental/social impacts

Definition of Capitalocene

Epoch defined by capitalism's global extractive, economic-social transformation of nature and societies

Difference between Plantationocene and Capitalocene

Plantationocene emphasizes colonial plantation slavery systems; Capitalocene emphasizes capitalism's global, systemic impact

Examples of global food commodities

Meat; Sugar; Coffee

History of meat as global commodity

Mass production through industrial meatpacking (e.g. Chicago), commodification of livestock and meat distribution

History of sugar as global commodity

From luxury item to mass-produced commodity through colonial/slave-labor economies and global trade

History of coffee as global commodity

Introduced to Europe via Ottoman/early modern trade; plantations & global trade made coffee a major global commodity in 19th-20th centuries

Definition of biopiracy

Appropriation of indigenous or local genetic knowledge/ resources by corporations for monopoly or patenting

Definition of genetic engineering

Manipulating DNA to produce desired traits in organisms using biotechnology

Case: Bt Cotton in India and corporate control

GM cotton expressing Bt; patented by corporations (e.g. Monsanto), leading to market dominance and dependency

Definition of urban hinterlands

Productive rural/ non-urban spaces (agriculture, forest, resources) that support urban life and consumption

Example of urban hinterlands from Nature's Metropolis (Chicago)

Forests, agricultural zones, water sources surrounding urban centers that supply resources to city

Definition of commodity chain

The linked sequence from raw material extraction → production → transport → consumption / commodity creation

Scholars associated with commodity chain analysis

Terence Hopkins & Immanuel Wallerstein

"Triple threat" defined by Crutzen

Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution

Apocalyptic vs Techno-optimist approach to Anthropocene

Apocalyptic: human-driven collapse & ecological disaster; Techno-optimist: human innovation/technology can solve environmental crises

Definition of Anthropocene

Geological epoch defined by human dominance over Earth's geology, biology, climate

Approximate start of Anthropocene

Late 18th century (circa 1782 — beginning of industrial revolution / steam engine)

Evidence we are living in Anthropocene

Geological markers, global temperature rise, CO₂ increase, large-scale environmental transformation due to human activity

Definition of multilateral approach to environmental issues

International cooperation among multiple states to collectively address environmental problems

Definition of nature-based solutions

Environmental solutions using natural systems or processes (e.g. afforestation, wetland restoration, green infrastructure)

Examples of major environmental agreements / global conferences

UNCOP (confrence of parties - climate/biodiv), UNFramework on Climate Change UNFCC, UN Convention on Biological Diversity CBD, Rio Earth Summit formed UNFCC, Kyoto Protocol set binding targets, Paris Agreement set 20/20/20

Examples of climate financing tools / mechanisms

Loss & Damage Fund, international financial support for climate adaptation/ mitigation

Core ideas behind US environmentalism

Conservationism, Preservationism, and the ethos of the Land Ethic

Definition of Conservationism

Efficient and sustainable use of natural resources for human benefit (Pinchot school)

Definition of Preservationism

Protecting nature for its intrinsic value, independent of human use (Muir school)

Definition of Leopold's Land Ethic

Ethical framework that sees humans as part of ecological communities and emphasizes moral responsibilities toward land

Definition of "property" (in Mosquera-Camacho lecture)

Practice & social relationship between people, things, and places; legal guarantee of ownership under law

Common everyday/legal definition of property

Individual ownership backed by legal title (deeds, ownership documents)

Why having a land title doesn't guarantee secure living conditions

Legal title doesn't guarantee access to resources, capital, social power — may not improve living standards

Alternative ways people relate to land beyond legal title

Communal stewardship, indigenous or community-based tenure, social relations of place instead of formal property

Why our knowledge & management of nature isn't neutral

It's shaped by power, history, politics — not objective or politically neutral

Examples of how Western property norms exclude certain groups

Small-scale farmers, Indigenous communities, campesinos — whose land relationships don't align with individual-title systems