Category Archives: World Politics

Global Health Security, Human Rights, Inequality, World Politics

Health, Peace, and the Summit of the Future: A Wake-Up Call

The Summit of the Future laid bare the stark reality of our global predicament. As young voices echoed through the halls, pleading for a better world, the disconnect between rhetoric and action was palpable. With a mere 16% of SDG targets on track for 2030, the clock is ticking, and the world is falling behind.

Leaders paraded their support for renewed efforts, yet their messages blurred into a cacophony of sameness. The elephant in the room remained unaddressed: If we can’t collaborate here, where can we? Who will step up to forge the future we desperately need?

This was nowhere more apparent than in the connections between Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).  While there is a stronger recent focus on the link between health and economic or climate goals, the mutually reinforcing goals of health and peace are sometimes overlooked.  The ‘siloes’ of politics and strategy operate separately from those of health professions, public health experts, and socioeconomics.  Despite the overlaps, there is little discussion between the two communities.   

In 1981, the World Health Assembly acknowledged that the role of physicians and other health workers in the preservation and promotion of peace is “the most important factor for attainment of health for all.”  Similar initiatives include the World Health Organization’s Peace Through Health plan, begun in the 1990s; and the Health as a Bridge for Peace (HBP) framework, was formally accepted by the 51st World Health Assembly in 1998.

But the onus should not only be on the health sector: diplomats, security experts and foreign policy analysts should note the importance of the connection between health and peace. Similarly to the women, peace and security agenda, the health and peace agenda enables ‘multi-solving’ by addressing the root causes of violence and conflict.  Protecting health security  inoculates against violence in its many forms.  Attention to health security during post-conflict reconstruction reduces the potential for violence to feed into vicious cycles of retribution.

The pandemic exposed the critical need for global health diplomacy. Instead of uniting against a common threat, leaders retreated into nationalist health security postures, squandering chances for conflict resolution through health diplomacy.

Dr. Jeffrey Sachs speaks at the Pre-Summit of the Future at Columbia University, September 2024

Dr. Jeffrey Sachs speaks at the Pre-Summit of the Future at Columbia University, September 2024

Amidst the gloom, glimmers of progress shine through:

On September 21st 2024, the International Day of Peace, as part of the UN General Assembly Action Days, I was struck by the comments of Juan Manuel Santos, Former President of Colombia and 2016 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He noted the strong connection between health and peace when he observed the way in which the civil war conflict in Colombia changed over time.  As he said, “when soldiers were taken to hospital instead of being killed, it changed the dynamic: when one could trust that the other side would respect their humanity, the level of trust rose on all sides.  The ‘enemy’ became human.”

Similarly, in 1859 when Swiss businessman Henri Dunant heard the cries of the wounded on the plains following the Battle of Solferino and called for a halt in the fighting to organize aid, a shift took place that changed the world forever.  Dunant’s proposal to create national relief societies to provide neutral and impartial care during conflicts led to the formation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863 and the adoption of the first Geneva Convention in 1864.  Ever since, heeding the needs for health has been a powerful lever for upsetting the vicious cycle of violence.  In September, fighting was paused in Gaza to enable the vaccination of 640,000 children from the scourge of polio. This effort was not an outlier:  the World Health Organization has assisted with vaccine drives during humanitarian crises in many other parts of the world, including the Congo in 1999, where the immunization-related days of tranquility enabled the vaccination of 80% of 10 million children younger than 5 years.

To break the cycle of violence and create a healthier, more peaceful world, we must:

1. Deploy dedicated health diplomats to navigate the geopolitical minefield

2. Revitalize human rights and the Geneva Conventions, prioritizing protection for healthcare workers in conflict zones

3. Boost Official Development Assistance (ODA) for health systems (currently a paltry 0.37% of OECD GNI)

4. Educate relentlessly on the health-peace connection

The Pact for the Future offers a chance to recognize that investing in health creates a powerful multiplier effect on peace. It’s time to move beyond lofty declarations and take decisive action. The future we promised to safeguard is now, and it’s slipping through our fingers.

Anthropocene, Disasters, World Politics

Are we entering a new Dark Age?

Through time and across civilizations we will explore the cyclical nature of societal decline. Drawing parallels between the English Civil War, the fall of Islamic Civilization, and the onset of the Medieval Era in Europe, and similar periods of regression elsewhere. We’ll also examine the critical roles of knowledge, communication and education in sustaining civilization. Amidst the contemporary challenges of disinformation, eroding political trust, and deepening inequality, we’ll look down the dark corridors of history to find lessons that can guide us in preventing a modern descent into a new Dark Age. 

Talk to SLR November 28th, 2024

References and Further Reading

Ahmed, N. (2024, November 8). Trump’s America: The Fulcrum of a Global ‘Network War’ on Democracy. Byline Times. https://bylinetimes.com/2024/11/08/trumps-america-the-fulcrum-of-a-global-network-war-on-democracy/

Democracy index. (May 2024). Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu

Fazio, L. K., Rand, D. G., & Pennycook, G. (2019). Repetition increases perceived truth equally for plausible and implausible statements. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 26(5), 1705–1710. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-019-01651-4

Khan, M. (2024, October 22). Why Ibn Khaldun Still Matters. New Lines Institute. https://newlinesinstitute.org/geo-economics/why-ibn-khaldun-still-matters/

LA Times. (2024). Reality TV workers face a bleak job market amid production decline—Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-08-05/the-hollywood-production-collapses-latest-victim-why-the-reality-tv-bubble-finally-burst

Live Science. (2022, May 3). The Universe Could Start Shrinking ‘Remarkably’ Soon, Scientists Say. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/the-universe-could-start-shrinking-remarkably-soon

Medill’s 2024 State of Local News report expands what it qualifies as local news—And asks readers to point out what it missed. (October 23, 2024). Nieman Lab. https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/10/medills-2024-state-of-local-news-report-expands-what-it-qualifies-as-local-news-and-asks-readers-to-point-out-what-it-missed

Oswald, L., Lorenz-Spreen, P., Hertwig, R., & Lewandowsky, S. (2022, November 7). Is the global decline in democracy linked to social media? We combed through the evidence to find out. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/is-the-global-decline-in-democracy-linked-to-social-media-we-combed-through-the-evidence-to-find-out-193841

Park, M., Leahey, E., & Funk, R. J. (2023). Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time. Nature, 613(7942), 138–144. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05543-x

Sagan, C., (2011). The Demon-Haunted World Random House Publishing Group

Santos, C. (2024, June 11). Chipotle’s CEO Responded To Claims About Portion Sizes. https://www.buzzfeed.com/claudiasantos/chipotle-ceo-small-portions-response

Saric, I. (2024, August 13). U.S. theme parks are emptier as costs surge and travelers go global. Axios. https://www.axios.com/2024/08/13/theme-disney-universal-parks-visitor-decline

Teen Mental Health Facts and Statistics 2024. (2024). https://blog.compasshealthcenter.net/teen-mental-health-statistics

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok | WIRED. (2022). https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/

What do historians lose with the decline of local news?  | History Today. (May 5 2023). https://www.historytoday.com/archive/head-head/what-do-historians-lose-decline-local-news

West, D. How disinformation defined the 2024 election narrative. (November 7, 2024). Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-disinformation-defined-the-2024-election-narrative/

Why is emotional distress rising worldwide? – Big Think. (April 3, 2023). https://bigthink.com/the-present/emotional-distress-is-rising-worldwide/

Yoni Appelbaum: Americans Aren’t Practicing Democracy—The Atlantic. (2018). https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/losing-the-democratic-habit/568336/

Disasters, Global Health Security, Sustainable Development, World Politics

Ethical Governance of Global Health Security in an Age of Polycrisis

Dr. W. Andy Knight and Dr. Rosalind Warner

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed critical gaps in the effort to improve global health security and highlighted the need for ethical frameworks to guide preparedness and response efforts. This study examines the ethical challenges in governing global health security amidst intersecting crises. The objective is to identify and analyze key ethical dilemmas and propose principles for equitable, accountable, and effective global health security governance.

Poster prepared for Canadian Association for Global Health Conference October 23-25, 2024

Vancouver, BC Canada

Ethical Governance of Global Health Security in an Age of Polycrisis Dr. W. Andy Knight and Dr. Rosalind Warner (1)Download

Selected References

Equity and Fairness

Balabanova, D., McKee, M., Mills, A., Walt, G., & Haines, A. (2010). What can global health institutions do to help strengthen health systems in low income countries. Health Policy Research and Systems, 8, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4505-8-22

Connolly, K. (n.d.). Freedom and Fairness: Covid Vaccine Passport Plans Cause Global Unease. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/07/freedom-and-fairness-covid-vaccine-passport-plans-cause-global-unease.

Deivanayagam, T. A., English, S., Hickel, J., Bonifacio, J., Guinto, R. R., Hill, K. X., Huq, M., Issa, R., Mulindwa, H., Nagginda, H. P., de Morais Sato, P., Selvarajah, S., Sharma, C., & Devakumar, D. (2023). Envisioning environmental equity: Climate change, health, and racial justice. The Lancet, 402(10395), 64–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00919-4

Dewan, A. (n.d.). A Fight between the EU and UK Reveals the Ugly Truth about Vaccine Nationalism. CNN. Cable News Network. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/europe/uk-eu-astrazeneca-vaccine-nationalism-gbr-intl/index.html.

Elbe, S. (2010). A Global Pharmacy for the poor? Endemics and Other Human Insecurities. In Security and Global Health (p. 220). Polity Press.

Loh, M. (n.d.). Who Chief: It’s ‘Seriously Disappointing’ That Rich Countries Are Ordering Booster Shots While Other Nations Need Vaccines. Insider. Insider. https://www.insider.com/who-admonishes-rich-countries-buying-booster-shots-others-need-vaccines-2021-7.

O’Neill Institute For National & Global Health Law Georgetown Law & Center for Transformational Health Law. (2022, April). Equitable Access Review of CEPI’s COVID-19 Vaccine Development Agreements. https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/publications/equitable-access-review-of-cepis-covid-19-vaccine-development-agreements/

Smith, R., Beaglehole, R., Woodward, D., Drager, N., & Smith, R. (2003). Global public goods for health: Health economic and public health perspectives. Oxford University Press.

Van De Pas, R., Widdowson, M. A., Ravinetto, R., N Srinivas, P., Ochoa, T. J., Fofana, T. O., & Van Damme, W. (2022). COVID-19 vaccine equity: A health systems and policy perspective. Expert Review of Vaccines, 21(1), 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/14760584.2022.2004125

Beneficence and Non-Maleficence

McDougall, L. (2016). Discourse, ideas and power in global health policy networks: Political attention for maternal and child health in the millennium development goal era. Globalization and Health, 12(1), 309. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-016-0157-9

Pike, J., Bogich, T., Elwood, S., Finnoff, D. C., & Daszak, P. (2014). Economic optimization of a global strategy to address the pandemic threat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(52), 18519–18523. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.1412661112

Autonomy and Privacy

Dror, A. A., Eisenbach, N., Taiber, S., Morozov, N. G., Mizrachi, M., Zigron, A., Srouji, S., & Sela, E. (2020). Vaccine hesitancy: The next challenge in the fight against COVID-19. European Journal of Epidemiology, 35(8), 775–779. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10654-020-00671-Y/FIGURES/3

Packard, R. M. (2016). A History of Global Health: Interventions Into the Lives of Other People.

Sallam, M. (2021). Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy worldwide: A concise systematic review of vaccine acceptance rates. Vaccines, 9(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/VACCINES9020160

Salmon, D. A., Haber, M., Gangarosa, E. J., Phillips, L., Smith, N. J., & Chen, R. T. (1999). Health consequences of religious and philosophical exemptions from immunization laws: Individual and societal risk of measles. Journal of the American Medical Association, 282(1), 47–53. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.282.1.47

Turnbull, S. (n.d.). Here’s What Canada’s Privacy Commissioners Say Must Be Considered for Vaccine Passports. Coronavirus. CTV News. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/here-s-what-canada-s-privacy-commissioners-say-must-be-considered-for-vaccine-passports-1.5434967?fbclid=IwAR1Qu_olw-hmvgTkxJpDJCIYhCQ2mwKUKoEb1b3BchNJrjX7LU6YFAYdk7A.

Global Solidarity

Acharya, A. (n.d.). A ‘Third Way’ for World Order after Covid-19: Think Global Health. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/third-way-world-order-after-covid-19.

Duff, J. H., Liu, A., Saavedra, J., Batycki, J., Morancy, K., Stocking, B., O Gostin, L., Galea, S., Bertozzi, S., Zuniga, J. M., Alberto-Banatin, C., Dansua, A. S., del Rio, C., Kulzhanov, M., Lee, K., Scaglia, G., Shahpar, C., Ullmann, A. J., Hoffman, S. J., … Szapocznik, J. (2021). A global public health convention for the 21st century. Lancet Public Health, 6(6), 428–433.

Eaton, L., & Humphreys, G. (2020). The need for a coordinated international pandemic response. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 98(6), 378–379. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.20.020620

Gostin, L. O., & Friedman, E. A. (2014). Ebola: A crisis in global health leadership. The Lancet, 384(9951), 1323. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(14)61791-8

Gupta, N., Singh, B., Kaur, J., Singh, S., & Chattu, V. K. (2021). Covid-19 pandemic and reimagination of multilateralism through global health diplomacy. Sustainability (Switzerland), 13(20). https://doi.org/10.3390/SU132011551

Heymann, D. (2006). SARS and emerging infectious diseases: A challenge to place global solidarity above national sovereignty. Annals Academy Of Medicine Singapore, 35(5), 350.

Jamison, D. T., Summers, L. H., Alleyne, G., Arrow, K. J., Berkley, S., Binagwaho, A., Bustreo, F., Evans, D., Feachem, R. G. A., Frenk, J., Ghosh, G., Goldie, S. J., Guo, Y., Gupta, S., Horton, R., Kruk, M. E., Mahmoud, A., Mohohlo, L. K., Ncube, M., … Yamey, G. (2015). Global health 2035: A world converging within a generation. The Lancet, 382(9908), 1898–1955. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(13)62105-4

Taghizade, S., Chattu, V. K., Jaafaripooyan, E., & Kevany, S. (2021). COVID-19 Pandemic as an Excellent Opportunity for Global Health Diplomacy. Frontiers in Public Health, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/FPUBH.2021.655021

Tong, S., Samet, J. M., Steffen, W., Kinney, P. L., & Frumkin, H. (2023). Solidarity for the Anthropocene. Environmental Research, 235, 116716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2023.116716

Individual vs Collective Rights

Global Health Governance: Health Security Vs. Human Rights? (n.d.). Australian Institute of International Affairs. Retrieved 23 September 2023, from https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/global-health-governance-health-security-vs-human-rights/

HAYDEN, P. (2012). The human right to health and the struggle for recognition. Review of International Studies, 38(3), 569–588. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210511000556

Hollingsworth, T. D., Ferguson, N. M., & Anderson, R. M. (2007). Frequent travelers and rate of spread of epidemics. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 13(9), 1288–1294. https://doi.org/10.3201/EID1309.070081

Hostmaelingen, N., & Bentzen, H. B. (2020). How to operationalise human rights for COVID-19 measures. BMJ Global Health, 5(7), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003048

Kata, A. (2012). Anti-vaccine activists, Web 2.0, and the postmodern paradigm—An overview of tactics and tropes used online by the anti-vaccination movement. Vaccine, 30(25), 3778–3789. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.VACCINE.2011.11.112

UNGA (United Nations General Assembly). (2022, July 28). UN General Assembly declares access to clean and healthy environment a universal human right | UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123482

Proactive vs Reactive

Ayala, A., Brush, A., Chai, S., Fernandez, J., Ginsbach, K., Gottschalk, K., Halabi, S., Hosangadi, D., Mapatano, D., Monahan, J., Moretti, C., Pillinger, M., Ramirez, G. S., & Rosenfeld, E. (2022). Advancing Legal Preparedness through the Global Health Security Agenda. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 50(1), 200–203. https://doi.org/10.1017/JME.2022.26

Cáceres, S. B. (n.d.). Global Health Security in an Era of Global Health Threats—Volume 17, Number 10—October 2011—Emerging Infectious Diseases journal—CDC. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1710.101656

de Guttry, A. (2020). Is the International Community Ready for the Next Pandemic Wave? A Legal Analysis of the Preparedness Rules Codified in Universal Instruments and of their Impact in the Light of the COVID-19 Experience. Global Jurist, 20(3), 1–41.

Fukuda-Parr, S. (2022). When indicators fail: SPAR, the invisible measure of pandemic preparedness. Policy and Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puac024

Gostin, L. O., & Ayala, A. S. (2017). Global Health Security in an Era of Explosive Pandemic Potential. Journal of National Security Law & Policy, 9, 53.

Knight, W. A., & Reddy, K. S. (2020). Caribbean response to COVID-19: A regional approach to pandemic preparedness and resilience. The Round Table, 109(4), 464–465. https://doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2020.1790759

Lal, A., Abdalla, S. M., Chattu, V. K., Erondu, N. A., Lee, T., Singh, S., Abou-taleb, H., Morales, J. V., & Phelan, A. (2022). Health Policy Pandemic preparedness and response: Exploring the role of universal health coverage within the global health security architecture. 22, 1–9.

Manika, S. (2021). Fostering preparedness for COVID-19 in cities: How cities can support the healthcare system by efficiently managing emergency funding. TPR: Town Planning Review, 92(3), 293–299.

Nelson, C., Lurie, N., Wasserman, J., & Zakowski, S. (2007). Conceptualizing and Defining Public Health Emergency Preparedness. American Journal of Public Health, 97, S9–S11. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2007.114496

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff. (2022, October 24). Using Legal Preparedness to Minimize Liability Barriers to Accessing Pandemic Vaccine and Medical Countermeasures. Bill of Health. https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/10/24/using-legal-preparedness-to-minimize-liability-barriers-to-accessing-pandemic-vaccine-and-medical-countermeasures/

Virtual Blockbuster Bird Flu and the Pandemic of Preparedness Planning. (2018). In Stefan Elbe, Pandemics, Pills, and Politics: Governing Global Health Security (p. 106). Johns Hopkins University Press

Proportionality and Necessity

Dace, H., Miller, B., Ramli, R., Sleat, D., Thorne, E., & Wain, R. (n.d.). The New Necessary: How We Future-Proof for the Next Pandemic. Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Retrieved 8 July 2021, from https://institute.global/policy/new-necessary-how-

Dzau, V. J., & Rodin, J. (2015). Creating a global health risk framework. New England Journal of Medicine, 373(11), 991–993. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1509136

Knight, W. A., & Oriola, T. B. (2022). Vaccine nationalism, violent extremist problematique and state management of combat-related deaths. Https://Doi.Org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2059923, 15(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2059923

Lal, A., Abdalla, S. M., Chattu, V. K., Erondu, N. A., Lee, T., Singh, S., Abou-taleb, H., Morales, J. V., & Phelan, A. (2022). Health Policy Pandemic preparedness and response: Exploring the role of universal health coverage within the global health security architecture. 22, 1–9.

Samaan, G., Patel, M., Spencer, J., & Roberts, L. (2004). Border screening for SARS in Australia: What has been learnt? Medical Journal of Australia, 180(5), 220–224. https://doi.org/10.5694/J.1326-5377.2004.TB05889.X

The Lancet: New report details “massive global failures” of COVID-19 response, calls for improved multilateral cooperation to end pandemic and effectively manage future global health threats. (2022). SDSN Newsletter. https://www.unsdsn.org/the-lancet-new-report-details-massive-global-failures-of-covid-19response-calls-for-improved-multilateral-cooperation-to-end-pandemic-andeffectively-manage-future-global-health-threats

Transparency and Accountability

Lindmeier, C. (2021). WHO, Germany launch new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/05-05-2021-who-germany-launch-new-global-hub-for-pandemic-and-epidemic-intelligence

MacIntyre, C. R., & Aginam, O. (2022, June 22). At what point is a disease deemed to be a global threat? Here’s the answer. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/at-what-point-is-a-disease-deemed-to-be-a-global-threat-heres-the-answer-185547

Ozawa, S., Paina, L., & Qiu, M. (2016). Exploring pathways for building trust in vaccination and strengthening health system resilience. BMC Health Services Research, 16, 131–141. https://doi.org/10.1186/S12913-016-1867-7

Sturmberg, J. P. (2020). Approaching complexity—Start with awareness. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 26(3), 1030–1033. https://doi.org/10.1111/JEP.13355

Human Rights, World Politics

The Pursuit of Peace during a Time of Polycrisis

Governments have claimed to be pursuing peace since time immemorial, with seemingly little progress to show for it.  Numerous treaties, declarations, laws and covenants have been signed to eliminate war or reduce its effects, yet societies continue to fight and to suffer, despite these efforts. In this talk, we will survey the historical benchmarks of war and peace in world politics, consider where things went wrong, and speculate about how peace might be achieved in the context of an ongoing global crisis.

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climate, democracy, US Politics, World Politics

Unrest to Uprising: The Past, Present and Future of Political Protest

This talk will delve into the historical context, current challenges, and future implications of this powerful form of civic action. What are the ethical dilemmas of civil disobedience? What might be the effect of disruptive technologies on state surveillance and the balance between security and individual freedoms? Talk on November 10, 2023

Further Reading

‘93% of Black Lives Matter Protests Have Been Peaceful: Report | Time’. n.d. Accessed 4 November 2023. https://time.com/5886348/report-peaceful-protests/

Applebaum, Anne, and Peter Pomerantsev. 2021. ‘How to Put Out Democracy’s Dumpster Fire’. The Atlantic, 9 March 2021. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/04/the-internet-doesnt-have-to-be-awful/618079/.

‘Climate Chaos, the French Revolution and a Warning for Today | Time’. n.d. Accessed 4 November 2023. https://time.com/6107671/french-revolution-history-climate/?utm_source=pocket_saves.

‘Doe Mee, Maak Nederland Fossielvrij!’ n.d. Fossielvrij NL. Accessed 4 November 2023. https://gofossilfree.org/nl/.

Gurri, Martin. 2018. The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium. San Francisco, CA: Stripe Press.

Haidt, Jonathan. 2022. ‘Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid’. The Atlantic, 11 April 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/.

Hutt, James. 2022. ‘The Battle of Billings Bridge ⋆ The Breach’. The Breach. 16 February 2022. https://breachmedia.ca/the-battle-of-billings-bridge/.

‘Iran’s Summer of Discontent: A Warning for Washington’. 2018. War on the Rocks. 23 July 2018. https://warontherocks.com/2018/07/irans-summer-of-discontent-a-warning-for-washington/.

June 3, Asam Ahmad /, and 2018 / 8 Min Read. n.d. ‘Who Is Your Oppressor?’ Accessed 4 November 2023. https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/who-is-your-oppressor.

Kumar, Rajeesh. 2017. ‘What New Declassifications Reveal about the 1953 Coup in Iran’. E-International Relations (blog). 7 September 2017. https://www.e-ir.info/2017/09/07/what-new-declassifications-reveal-about-the-1953-coup-in-iran/.

Levine, Bruce E. 2018. ‘Another Reason Young Americans Don’t Revolt Against Being Screwed’. CounterPunch.Org. 14 June 2018. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/14/another-reason-young-americans-dont-revolt-against-being-screwed/.

Lowery, Wesley. 2020. ‘Why Minneapolis Was the Breaking Point’. The Atlantic (blog). 10 June 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/wesley-lowery-george-floyd-minneapolis-black-lives/612391/.

Monbiot, George. 2022. ‘“It Felt like History Itself” – 48 Protest Photographs That Changed the World’. The Guardian, 2 July 2022, sec. World news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/02/it-felt-like-history-itself-48-protest-photographs-that-changed-the-world.

Morgan, Ted. 2021. ‘The Capitol Assault Was an Act of Expressive Politics. A Backlash Is Surely Coming—against the Left’. Salon. 27 February 2021. https://www.salon.com/2021/02/27/the-capitol-assault-was-an-act-of-expressive-politics-a-backlash-is-surely-comingagainst-the-left/.

Ozden, James. 2023. ‘What Makes a Protest Movement Successful?’ Social Change Lab. 4 January 2023. https://www.socialchangelab.org/post/what-makes-a-protest-movement-successful.

Pineda, Erin R. 2021a. Seeing Like an Activist: Civil Disobedience and the Civil Rights Movement. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.

———. 2022. ‘“Disobedience”: An Essay by Erin R. Pineda (Keywords: Activism; Civil Disobedience; Climate Change)’. The Philosopher. 18 July 2022. https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/the-new-basics-disobedience.

Resilience. 2018. ‘Poor People’s Campaign Gears Up for Mother’s Day Launch’. Resilience. 9 May 2018. https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-05-09/poor-peoples-campaign-gears-up-for-mothers-day-launch/.

Sleeper, Jim. 2017. ‘Warlocks, Witches and American Stampedes: The Built-in Dangers of #MeToo’. Salon. 28 December 2017. https://www.salon.com/2017/12/28/warlocks-witches-and-american-stampedes-the-built-in-dangers-of-metoo/.

The Economist. n.d. ‘Digital Media Fuel Global Protests but Can Be Used against Them’. Accessed 4 November 2023. https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/16/digital-media-fuel-global-protests-but-can-be-used-against-them

‘What INGOs Can Learn from Greta Thunberg and the Global Climate Strikes’. n.d. openDemocracy. Accessed 4 November 2023. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/what-ingos-can-learn-greta-thunberg-and-global-climate-strikes/

‘Why Confrontation Is Not the Best Way to Effect Regime Change in China – Areo’. n.d. Accessed 4 November 2023. https://areomagazine.com/2019/06/21/why-confrontation-is-not-the-best-way-to-effect-regime-change-in-china/

‘Women Are Marrying Trees to Save Them from Deforestation’. 2021. Euronews. 13 September 2021. https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/09/12/over-70-women-marry-local-trees-to-save-them-from-deforestation.

Anthropocene, Environmental Research, Human Rights, political theory, World Politics

How Kinship Practices Could Foster New Relations Between Humans and Nature

Sustainability Now! Podcast

Southern Resident Orcas are critically endangered despite legal protection

on KSQD 90.7 FM, KSQT 89.7 FM, K207FE(FX) 89.5 FM and KSQD.org

The Rights of Nature is one way to rethink the relationships between humans and Nature, but are there other ways to think about those connections? Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Dr. Rosalind Warner, professor of political science at Okanagan College in British Columbia and Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance Project. Warner is studying the role of kinship metaphors in Earth System Law, with kinship connoting more ethical relationships among humans, Nature and earth’s non-human inhabitants. Earth System Law is an emerging body of legal precepts, principles and practices that bring together ethics and law with the planet’s dynamic physical and biological cycles. Tune in to hear a new take on human-nature relations.

Go to Episode
democracy, For Students, Politics in Canada, US Politics, World Politics

The New(er) World of Untruth Part II

Alternative facts, misdirection, and outright propaganda seem to dominate the news media landscape today in a way that is quite different from the past.

Presented February 10th, Society for Learning in Retirement

Thank you to the Society for Learning in Retirement in Kelowna for honouring me with a lifetime membership! I feel very privileged to be able to continue serving this very wonderful group of humans!

Some Tools for Media Literacy

Readings

2018 Edelman Trust Barometer. (2017).

Art of the lie—Post-truth politics. (2016). The Economist. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2016/09/10/art-of-the-lie?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/2016098n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/NA/n

Benkler, Y., Faris, R., Roberts, H., & Zuckerman, E. (2017). Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda—Columbia Journalism Review. Columbia Journalism Review. http://www.cjr.org/analysis/breitbart-media-trump-harvard-study.php

ChatGPT: Optimizing Language Models for Dialogue. (2022, November 30). OpenAI. https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

Coaston, J. (2018). #QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy theory, explained—Vox. Vox. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/1/17253444/qanon-trump-conspiracy-theory-reddit

Coles, T. J. (2018). Fake News and Weaponized Bots: How Algorithms Inflate Profiles, Spread Disinfo and Disrupt Democracy. Counterpunch. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/08/fake-news-and-weaponized-bots-how-algorithms-inflate-profiles-spread-disinfo-and-disrupt-democracy/

Devega, C. (2018). Donald Trump’s “chaos magic”: Author Gary Lachman on the far right’s links to occult philosophy | Salon.com. Salon. https://www.salon.com/2018/07/16/donald-trumps-chaos-magic-author-gary-lachman-on-the-far-rights-links-to-occult-philosophy/

Edwards, S., & Livingston, S. (2018). Fake news is about to get a lot worse. That will make it easier to violate human rights—And get away with it. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/03/fake-news-is-about-to-get-a-lot-worse-that-will-make-it-easier-to-violate-human-rights-and-get-away-with-it/?noredirect=on

Gonzalez, R. J. (2018). The Mind-Benders: How to Harvest Facebook Data, Brainwash Voters, and Swing Elections. Counterpunch. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/23/the-mind-benders-how-to-harvest-facebook-data-brainwash-voters-and-swing-elections/

Gross, J. (2023, January 10). How Finland Is Teaching a Generation to Spot Misinformation. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/world/europe/finland-misinformation-classes.html

Gutting, G. (2011). The Social Side of Reasoning—The New York Times. The New York Times Opinionator – The Stone. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/argument-truth-and-the-social-side-of-reasoning/

How to Spot a Bogus News Site. (n.d.). Pocket. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://getpocket.com/collections/how-to-spot-a-bogus-news-site

Illing, S. (2018). Hashtag wars: How Facebook, Twitter, and social media changed how we fight wars—Vox. Vox. https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/world/2018/10/8/17884154/social-media-cyberwar-isis-taylor-swift-peter-singer

Jenkins, H. (2009). How "Dumbledore’s Army" Is Transforming Our World: An Interview with the HP Alliance’s Andrew Slack (Part One)—Henry Jenkins. Henry Jenkins.Org. http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2009/07/how_dumbledores_army_is_transf.html

Morgan, J. (2017). Sockpuppets, Secessionists, and Breitbart – Data for Democracy – Medium. Data for Democracy. https://medium.com/data-for-democracy/sockpuppets-secessionists-and-breitbart-7171b1134cd5

Mosleh, M., Pennycook, G., Arechar, A. A., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter. Nature Communications, 12(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20043-0

Pennycook, G., Epstein, Z., Mosleh, M., Arechar, A. A., Eckles, D., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online. Nature, 592(7855), Article 7855. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03344-2

Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2022). Accuracy prompts are a replicable and generalizable approach for reducing the spread of misinformation. Nature Communications, 13(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30073-5

Shao, C., Ciampaglia, G. L., Varol, O., Yang, K., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. (2017). The spread of low-credibility content by social bots. http://arxiv.org/abs/1707.07592

Weisburd, A., Watts, C., & Berger, J. (2016). Trolling for Trump: How Russia Is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy. War on the Rocks. https://warontherocks.com/2016/11/trolling-for-trump-how-russia-is-trying-to-destroy-our-democracy/

Yglesias, M. (2017). The Bullshitter-in-Chief—Vox. Vox. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/30/15631710/trump-bullshit

democracy, Human Rights, World Politics

The End of Impunity: Making Human Rights Work in the World

Despite a plethora of treaties, constitutional guarantees, and international organizations, the world continues to be afflicted with senseless atrocities that offend human conscience.   Why are institutions powerless against such waves of human cruelty and ruthlessness?  This session will explore what can be done to make human rights real.  Talk November 14th at Okanagan College, November 18th at SLR.

References

Holloway, K. (2017, November 24). Racism is a highly profitable online business | Salon.com. Salon. https://www.salon.com/2017/11/24/racism-is-a-highly-profitable-online-business/

Jones, D. (2007). The depths of disgust. Nature, 447(7146), 768–771. https://doi.org/10.1038/447768a

Mugabo, L. (2018, April 6). Liberation, Decolonization, Gacaca – Reflecting on the Rwandan Genocide, 24 Years Later – The Volcano. The Volcano. https://www.thevolcano.org/2018/04/06/liberation-decolonization-gacaca/

Nelson, B. (2022, November 5). How Stochastic Terrorism Uses Disgust to Incite Violence – Scientific American. Scientific America. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-stochastic-terrorism-uses-disgust-to-incite-violence/

Resnick, B. (2018). Psychologists surveyed hundreds of alt-right supporters. The results are unsettling. Vox. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/15/16144070/psychology-alt-right-unite-the-right

Resnick, B. (2017). The dark psychology of dehumanization, explained. Vox. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/3/7/14456154/dehumanization-psychology-explained

Serwer, A. (2018, March 14). Obama’s Legacy of Impunity for Torture – The Atlantic. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/obamas-legacy-of-impunity-for-torture/555578/

Shieber, J. (2018, August 28). Distributor of plans for 3D-printed guns puts his product back in circulation | TechCrunch. Techcrunch.Com. https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/28/distributor-of-plans-for-3d-printed-guns-puts-his-product-back-in-circulation/

Smith, J. A. (2022, April 19). How War Shapes Our Attitudes About Violence. Greater Good Magazine: Politics. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/war_shapes_attitudes_about_violence

Timmons, H. (2022, October 29). Hate speech, online extremism fed Pelosi attack, terror experts believe | Reuters. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hate-speech-online-extremism-fed-pelosi-attack-terror-experts-believe-2022-10-29/

Waldstein, D. (2015, June 17). In Chile’s National Stadium, Dark Past Shadows Copa América Matches – The New York Times. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/sports/soccer/in-chiles-national-stadium-dark-past-shadows-copa-america-matches.html

Zhang, L., Lee, E., & Kim, E. (n.d.). IMMIGRANTS IN COVID AMERICA – Xenophobia & Racism. University of Minnesota. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://immigrantcovid.umn.edu/xenophobia-racism

democracy, Human Rights, Inequality, political theory, Politics in Canada, US Politics, World Politics

Attack on Democracy

Around the world, the institutions of liberal democratic systems are
waging a rear-guard action against sustained attacks from populist
and extremist movements. These trends are not new, but can be
traced to events in the recent past, as well as broader historical
developments. In this session, participants will learn why political
scientists are so concerned about these trends, and what ordinary
citizens can do to improve democratic accountability in Canada.

Attack on Democracy
Anthropocene, Environmental Research, Sustainable Development, World Politics

Should Lakes have rights? the intrinsic value of the nonhuman world (talk)

About how law can borrow from the language of human rights to foster greater respect and protection for the intrinsic value of the nonhuman world.

Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 No 7, Public Act – New Zealand Legislation. 2017.
“Bolivia Enshrines Natural World’s Rights with Equal Status for Mother Earth | Environment | The Guardian.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights (August 8, 2019).
“Lake Erie Bill of Rights: This Great Lake Now Has Legal Rights, Just like You – Vox.” https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/2/26/18241904/lake-erie-legal-rights-personhood-nature-environment-toledo-ohio (August 8, 2019).
“A Rewilding Triumph: Wolves Help to Reverse Yellowstone Degradation | Environment | The Guardian.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/25/yellowstone-wolf-project-25th-anniversary (February 14, 2020).
“Kamikaze Tree Has Key to Survival.” https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/outdoors/richard-collins/kamikaze-tree-has-key-to-survival-53684.html (February 14, 2020).
“2020: The Year of Robot Rights | The MIT Press Reader.” https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/2020-the-year-of-robot-rights/ (February 14, 2020).
“Ogopogo Protector Passes on | News | Kelownadailycourier.Ca.” http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/article_e2a5f54a-5c88-11e7-92c9-2b85dc01e30b.html (February 14, 2020).
“This Bird Has Flown: Unravelling the Mysteries of Bird Migration | New Scientist.” https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23331180-500-this-bird-has-flown-unravelling-the-mysteries-of-bird-migration/ (February 14, 2020).
Akchurin, Maria. 2015. “Constructing the Rights of Nature: Constitutional Reform, Mobilization, and Environmental Protection in Ecuador.” Law & Social Inquiry 40(04): 937–68. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0897654600004226/type/journal_article (August 8, 2019).
Burdon, Peter. 2011. “The Jurisprudence of Thomas Berry.” Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology 15(2): 151–67. http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/10.1163/156853511×574478 (March 16, 2018).
Burdon, Peter. 2011. Exploring Wild Law. ed. Eric Burdon. Wakefield Press. https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/files/extracts/Exploring_Wild_Law_extract.pdf (February 12, 2019).
Burdon, Peter D. 2015. “Wild Law: A Proposal for Radical Social Change.” New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law 13. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/nzjpubinl13&id=165&div=15&collection=journals (February 18, 2019).
Callicott, J. Baird. 1997. Earth’s Insights : A Survey of Ecological Ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. (February 9, 2018).
Callicott, J. Baird. 2013. Thinking like a Planet : The Land Ethic and the Earth Ethic. Oxford University Press.
Cano Pecharroman, Lidia, Cano Pecharroman, and Lidia. 2018. “Rights of Nature: Rivers That Can Stand in Court.” Resources 7(1): 13. http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/7/1/13 (February 26, 2019).
Cochrane, Alasdair. Sentientist Politics : A Theory of Global Inter-Species Justice. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sentientist-politics-9780198789802?cc=ca&lang=en&# (August 9, 2019).
Cronon, William. 2013. “The Trouble with Wilderness or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” Environmental History 1(1): 7–28. http://faculty.washington.edu/timbillo/Readings and documents/Wilderness/Cronon The trouble with Wilderness.pdf (February 12, 2019).
Cullinan, Cormac. 2002. Wild Law : Governing People for Earth. Siber Ink in association with the Gaia Foundation & EnACT Intl.
Daly, Erin. 2012. “THE ECUADORIAN EXEMPLAR: THE FIRST EVER VINDICATIONS OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF NATURE.” Review of European Community & International Environmental Law 21(1): 63–66. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1467-9388.2012.00744.x (August 8, 2019).
Francis, Pope. 2015. “Laudato Si’ (24 May 2015) | Francis ‘Praise Be To You.’” http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html (March 16, 2018).
Kennedy, Brendan. 2012. “I Am the River and the River Is Me: The Implications of a River Receiving Personhood Status.” Cultural Survival Quarterly 36(4): 10. (February 9, 2018).
Kotzé, Louis J. 2014. “Rethinking Global Environmental Law and Governance in the Anthropocene.” Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law 32(2): 121–56. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02646811.2014.11435355 (August 26, 2019).
LeCain, Timothy J, ed. 2017. “Fellow Travelers.” In The Matter of History: How Things Create the Past, Studies in Environment and History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–22. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/matter-of-history/fellow-travelers/1D24A77976FFE24180C98E54E7112473.
Natalia Greene, By, congratulate Richard Frederick Wheeler, and Eleanor Geer. The First Successful Case of the Rights of Nature Implementation in Ecuador The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, the Ecuadorian Coordinator of Organizations for the Defense of Nature and the Environment (CEDENMA) and Fundación Pachamama Praise the First Successful Case of the Rights of Nature In. (August 8, 2019).
O’Donnell, Erin. 2017. “Three Rivers Are Now Legally People – but That’s Just the Start of Looking after Them.” Down to earth : science and environment fortnightly. (February 9, 2018).
O’Donnell, Erin L. 2018. “At the Intersection of the Sacred and the Legal: Rights for Nature in Uttarakhand, India.” Journal of Environmental Law 30(1): 135–44. http://10.0.4.69/jel/eqx026.
O’Donnell, Erin L., and Julia Talbot-Jones. 2018. “Creating Legal Rights for Rivers: Lessons from Australia, New Zealand, and India.” Ecology and Society 23(1): art7. https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol23/iss1/art7/ (August 8, 2019).
Rosencranz, Armin, and Dushyant Kishan Kaul. 2017. “Are Rivers Really Living Entities?” (February 26, 2019).
Smith, James L. 2017. “I, River?: New Materialism, Riparian Non-Human Agency and the Scale of Democratic Reform.” Asia Pacific Viewpoint 58(1): 99–111. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/apv.12140 (February 9, 2018).
Sowards, Adam. 2015. “Should Nature Have Standing to Sue? (Law and Nature) — High Country News.” High Country News. https://www.hcn.org/issues/47.1/should-nature-have-standing-to-sue (April 25, 2018).
Stone, Christopher D. 1974. Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects. Los Altos: William Kaufmann Inc.
Strack, Mick. 2017. “Land and Rivers Can Own Themselves.” International Journal of Law in the Built Environment 9(1): 4–17. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/10.1108/IJLBE-10-2016-0016 (February 9, 2018).
Voigt, Christina. 2013. Rule of Law for Nature: New Dimensions and Ideas in Environmental Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (February 9, 2018).