Global Dilemmas

This collection, marking the 25th anniversary of Harvard's Center for International Affairs, represents central issues for research in international affairs during this decade. Some issues carry over from themes that have been central to the Center's research programs since its founding; other issues represent the evolution of new areas of interest and concern. Divided into three parts: Part I: Ethics and Politics in Foreign Policymaking; Part II: Security Dilemmas of the Nuclear Age; Part III: The Interplay of Economics and Politics in Industrial Democracies. Co-published with the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.

Choosing to do fieldwork overseas, particularly in the Global South, is a challenge in itself. The researcher faces logistical complications, health and safety issues, cultural differences, language barriers, and much more. But permeating the entire fieldwork experience are a range of intermediating ethical issues. While many researchers seek to follow institutional and disciplinary guidelines on ethical research practice, the reality is that each situation is unique and the individual researcher must negotiate their own path through a variety of ethical challenges and dilemmas. This book was created to share such experiences, to serve not as a manual for ethical practice but rather as a place for reflection and mutual learning. Since ethical issues face the researcher at every turn and cannot be compartmentalized into one part of the research process, this book puts them at the very center of the discussion and uses them as the lens with which to view different stages of fieldwork. The book covers four thematic areas: ethical challenges in the field; ethical dimensions of researcher identity; ethical issues relating to research methods; and ethical dilemmas of engagement with a variety of actors. This volume also provides fresh insights by drawing on the experiences of research students rather than those of established academics. The contributors describe research conducted for their master’s degrees and doctorates, offering honest and self-critical reflections on how they negotiated ethical challenges and dilemmas. The chapters cover fieldwork carried out in countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America on a broad sweep of development-related topics. This book should have wide appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates, and early-career researchers working under the broad umbrella of development studies. Although focused on fieldwork in the Global South, the discussions and reflections are relevant to field research in many other countries and contexts.

Today’s global energy system faces two major challenges: how to secure the supply of reliable and affordable energy; and how to rapidly transform to a low-carbon, efficient and environmentally harmless energy supply. In this rigorous and illuminating book, Michael Bradshaw explores the key aspects of the current global energy dilemma and examines how it is playing out across the major regions and countries of the world. The book begins by charting the development of the current global energy system - exploring its key characteristics with a focus upon energy security and the relationship between energy, economic development and climate change. The next four chapters offer in-depth analyses of four distinct global energy dilemmas in different parts of the world: the challenge of sustaining affluence and decarbonising energy services in the high-energy economies of the developed world; the legacies of the centrally planned economy and the consequences of liberalisation in the post-socialist world; growing energy demand and emissions growth associated with the emerging regions; and finally, the quest to provide universal access to modern energy services in the developing world in a manner that is both economically and environmentally sustainable. Identifying the governance structures and policy options available to tackle the global energy dilemma, the book concludes that only an integrated approach - sensitive to regional issues - can reconcile the interests and needs of those facing differing energy challenges across the world today.

The need to ensure principle-driven, legally sound, and ethically acceptable behavior in the global context is not an easy task for leaders. They face the requirement of meeting the needs and expectations of a diverse set of stakeholders. They are increasingly called upon to protect, preserve, and restore the resources of the environment. They are expected to improve human well-being and social equity and recognize and effectively address economic and social issues concerning equality, social justice, and human rights protection. How should leaders in global organizations go about meeting the multiple demands of a complex global stakeholder environment? This book explores the dilemmas, paradoxes, and opportunities that leaders in global organizations of all types confront daily and addresses how managers can and should think about and approach these complex issues in responsible and productive ways. This book will be of interest to students and scholars across business, management and the social sciences more broadly.

Extensively revised and updated, the new Fourth Edition of Global Issues: An Introduction offers a unique approach to the most important environmental, economic, social, and political concerns of modern life. Revised and updated to reflect the latest global developments Examines the most important environmental, economic, social, and political concerns of modern life The only book of its kind to use the concept of development to illustrate how different global issues are interrelated Includes a new section on nuclear energy Chapter boxes examine ways that individuals can have a positive impact on the issues examined within the text Key features include a glossary of terms; guides to further reading, media, and Internet resources; and suggestions for discussing and studying the material

The practice of sex-selective abortion is on the rise globally, stirring debates about gender inequality, medical ethics and reproductive autonomy. This book is the first ethnography to document practices of sex selection in Viet Nam. It shows how and why abortions are used to select the sex of children and how Vietnamese individuals and health professionals are implicated in this illicit and controversial practice. Telling the stories of women who have undergone sex-selective abortions, it traces their passage through sex determination and abortion decision-making phases, and investigates their experiences during and after their sex-selective abortions. It describes the turmoil experienced by individuals who undergo such abortions and explores their interactions with the spectrum of social actors and health institutions that facilitate practices of sex selection. As the first ethnographic study on sex-selective abortions in Viet Nam, this book delves into socially sensitive terrain and sheds light on personally fraught individual experiences of reproductive agency. It documents societal responses to sex-selective abortions in Viet Nam and identifies gaps in the state’s capacity to regulate reproductive desire in a marketised economy. A resource for researchers, it contributes to ongoing debates on sex selection and provides a framework for developing relevant social policies, interventions and support services. ‘This pioneering study offers a nuanced and sensitive account of sex-selective abortion as human experience. Through thought provoking case studies, the book provides rare ethnographic documentation of the complex quandaries that arise as selective reproductive technologies are routinised across the globe.’ — Tine M. Gammeltoft, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen

Now reorganized and updated throughout, the fifth edition of this well-regarded introductory global issues text continues to reflect the most important aspects of an increasingly globalized world. Reorganized into more accessible chapters better suited to semester-long courses, with new sections covering development, climate change, pollution, and governance The only survey-level text in the field to unite the perspectives of geography, political science, sociology, ecology, international relations, economics, and development studies Moves beyond the international to be truly global in focus, with coverage of topics such as wealth and poverty, population, food, energy, natural resources, and technology Incorporates new case studies and examples, including the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the effects of changing water supply on migration, natural gas fracking, and smart grid technology Offers a dynamic and accessible narrative with many student-friendly features, such as chapter boxes, a glossary of terms, guides to further reading, media and Internet resources Discover up-to-date related news articles for inspiring discussion and research at https://www.facebook.com/GlobalIssuesHiteSeitz.

Global Issues is a pedagogically rich book that addresses prominent issues of contemporary concern.