Globalgrn.org Archive: 2002-2005

Research projects

 

Financial Markets Project

Inquiry initiated by this project will include the impact of financial globalization and the efficacy of liberalization policies, questions that inform countries about the types of policies they should adopt and that international financial organizations should require in this new environment of global financial markets.

Description | Research| Publications

Description

Globalization's effects on financial markets are well known, as capital market liberalization and international financial integration shape the flows of investment around the world today. Inquiry initiated by this project will include the impact of financial globalization and the efficacy of liberalization policies, questions that inform countries about the types of policies they should adopt and that international financial organizations (such as the International Monetary Fund) should require in this new environment of global financial markets. The Financial Markets Project seeks also to provide more effective understanding of the volatility of financial markets and their effect on national and transnational financial regimes.

Financial Markets Project Research

Financial Markets Project Publications

 

Global Health

The GRN Health Project will respond to the effects of globalization on health by developing projects that address the following critical areas of public health: public health infrastructure, capacity building, exchange of information, and lessons learned.

Description | HIV/AIDS | Research | Conferences | Curriculum Project

Description

Just as globalization processes recognize no national/international boundaries, disease vectors move across invisible political boundaries with impunity, infecting people on all sides. Globalization has speeded up the pace of disease distribution across the face of the globe spreading diseases such as cholera, tuberculosis, dengue fever, and AIDS to places where they were previously unknown. As this process continues to accelerate, increasingly large portions of the world's population are exposed to diseases they are not immune to, have few social or biological defenses against, and with public health infrastructures inadequate to mitigate against the onslaught. The recent flurry of discussions, research, and projects addressing health and globalization has raised questions about the global framework through which health is understood. Constructing a framework sensitive to the implications of globalization on health is necessary for closer examination of emerging health issues.

Researchers maintain that globalization has improved people's health by increasing communication and spread of technologies. The dispersal of these impacts is, however, often unequal across socioeconomic groups. The GRN Global Health Project will respond to the effects of globalization on health by developing projects that address the following critical areas of public health: public health infrastructure, capacity building, exchange of information, and lessons learned.

Program in Globalization and HIV/AIDS Research, Prevention, and Intervention

As one of our keystone collaborative efforts, the GRN launched its globalization and HIV/AIDS program with a conference entitled “HIV/AIDS Prevention in a Global World,” held in Tampa , Florida in April 2003.

The magnitude of the HIV/AIDS global pandemic in some areas of the world has turned the disease into a threat to political and economic security. No country is immune, but the most serious aspects of the crisis can be found in the non-western, pre-industrial parts of the world. In Africa , for example, HIV/AIDS has reached staggering proportions, claiming more than 2 million deaths – 80% of all AIDS deaths worldwide – in 2000 alone. More than 12 million children have been orphaned as a result of the disease, and today more than 25 million Africans live with HIV or AIDS. This health issue is also now a significant problem in several other parts of the world, including Southeast Asia , China , Russia , and parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

For more than a decade, various politicians, scientists, scholars and policymakers have attempted to understand this pandemic, to develop strategies for treating the disease, to deal with its economic, social and political impacts, and to devise approaches to preventing HIV/AIDS. In both scholarly and policy circles debates rage over how to stem the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Some suggest that the most immediate need is to treat those who are presently inflicted, perhaps with new miracle drugs. Others are concerned with the ethics of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Still others are concerned with understanding the political economy of the disease; or, with strategies for the prevention of HIV/AIDS now and in the future.

The two-day, by-invitation conference welcomed approximately 30 participants to discuss what issues are preventing significant change to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Dr. Paul Farmer, Co-Director of the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, opened the event with a keynote address entitled "Integrating HIV Prevention and Care: The Haiti Experience." The participants also used this time to discuss how the GRN and other organizations can best move forward in HIV/AIDS research, prevention, and intervention in ways that could contribute substantially and significantly to the overall policy agenda. More information about this effort will be posted on this web site as it becomes available. Communications may be directed to Nicole Robinson at grn@hawaii.edu or 808-956-9781.

Global Health Project Research

Global Health Project Conferences



Global Human Security

The Global Human Security Projects examines how the policies that lead to the empowerment of people and an attack on the sources of such problems as poverty, inequality and political disenfranchisement can ensure human security.

Rethinking Global Human Security | Publications | Seminars| Curriculum | Links

The Global Human Security Project examines how the policies that lead to the empowerment of people and an attack on the sources of such problems as poverty, inequality and political disenfranchisement can ensure human security. Traditionally the concept of “security” has been couched in neo-realist terms, relating to protecting the territorial integrity and political sovereignty of nations. This continues to be a legitimate concern for scholars and policy-makers alike, but at the current state of human development it is clear that an alternative or even complimentary conception of “security” needs to assume critical importance. How can we ensure human security? This can be achieved not through force of arms, but through policies that lead to the empowerment of people and an attack on the sources of such problems as poverty, inequality and political disenfranchisement. Today, more than at any other time in human history, we are able to marshal the resource to address the most intractable social, economic and technological problems that confront us. This would involve the implementation of poverty reduction strategies in the poorest parts of the world that lead to measurable positive results; systematic efforts to mitigate the potentially harmful effect of the rapid spread of global economic forces; and the promotion of good governance characterized by responsible, responsive and transparent political leadership, rule of law and respect for human rights. The achievement of all of these goals would contribute to the establishment of an enabling environment in which democracy could grow.

Rethinking Paradigms of Global Human Security

On September 20, 2002 the Globalization Research Network sponsored a conference entitled, “Rethinking Paradigms of Global Human Security," designed to explore various dimensions of the relationship between globalization and human security, and to take first steps in the identification of possible joint interests and projects among the member faculties of the four institutions.

The conference convened leading researchers from across the nation to discuss research and policy concerns that must be addressed in four critical areas: information technology; health; the environment; and conflict, conflict management, and democracy.

The conference report conference report (pdf) identifies participants and summarizes the major discussion points made. These include possible action items for further research that were identified for each session, which can help shape future research agendas, and findings from the plenary session underscoring GRN's commitment to long-term, collaborative work. Parties outside this conference who may be engaged by these questions or topics of interest are encouraged to contact Nicole Robinson at the GRN. Write to grn@hawaii.edu to request hard copies of the report.

Further readings and resources on topics in globalization and human security.

Global Human Security Project Publications

Global Human Security Project Seminars

Global Human Security Project Curriculum

Global Human Security Links

 

Governance

The Governance Project explores the pressure to harmonize domestic political structures and policies across countries, proposed reforms of state-owned enterprises through privatization and competitive markets, proposed standardized labor and environmental standards, and the search for generalized intellectual property laws.

Description | Research | Conferences | Curriculum Project

Description

One of the key issues of globalization and governance is the possible loss of governments' jurisdiction and/or sovereignty in favor of "global" standards promoted by international or regional trading organizations, examples of which include the WTO's requirements for members to promote trade by reducing barriers such as tariffs and quotas. This Governance Project will explore the pressure to harmonize domestic political structures and policies across countries, proposed reforms of state-owned enterprises through privatization and competitive markets, proposed labor and environmental standards, and the search for generalized intellectual property laws. The Network's research seeks to make clear the implications this loss of governance has for assistance policy for the World Bank and other international organizations. Finally, this project is directed at clarifying how multinational corporations face the competitive challenge of delivering products and services on a global scale, but within regulatory, social and economic conditions that vary widely across countries.

Governance Project Research

Governance Project Seminars

Governance Project Publications

 

Information Technology

The Information Technology Project investigates both the positive and negative effects of IT in such areas as local culture, national security and individual privacy. The project also addresses the question of how the integration of these technologies has affected the exchange and diffusion of information on a global scale.

Description | Research | Publications

Description

Information technology is a driver of globalization, including fiber optics, wireless, and satellite technologies that link cellular phones, fax, email, PDAs, the Internet, and a host of communication devices yet to be invented. The Information Technology Project investigates the integration of these technologies with new ways to exchange and diffuse information on a global scale. Research includes both positive and negative effects of these technologies in such area as impacts on local culture national security and individual privacy.

Information Technology Project Research

Information Technology Project Publications

 

Reforming Globalization

The Reforming Globalization Project seeks to discover territory between the globalists and the anti-globalists that can be achieved through a better understanding of globalization and the closer cooperation of the academic, government, business, and NGO communities.

Description | Research | Conferences | Curriculum Project

Description

The Reforming Globalization Project is a forum for the development of new ideas, strategies, and policies on how globalization can produce greater benefits for a larger population around the world. The project will examine how global business, trade, and development play a role in creating larger benefits for the world's inhabitants. It will bring together the academic, government, business, and NGO communities to formulate and implement strategies and policies that harness the benefits globalization can generate while lessening its unwanted effects.

The Reforming Globalization Project seeks to discover territory between the globalists and the anti-globalists that can be achieved through a better understanding of globalization and the closer cooperation of the academic, government, business, and NGO communities. Somewhere between the economic realities that drive trade and investment decisions, the regulation of markets, and social policies, is where the Reforming Globalization Project sets its sight.

Reforming Globalization Project Research

Reforming Globalization Project Conferences

Reforming Globalization Project Publications

Curriculum

 

New Patterns of Strategic Encounter