Question 2: International Trade and Development
International trade remains one of the most critical factors in the development of countries in the global north. The factor involves the integration of countries in the global arena to achieve the effective flow of goods and services. Besides, it involves the integration of national economies to enable the exchange of goods and services. International trade enables the growth of global economies since the past century and impacts economic development in many states around the world. The globalization process has enabled the free movement of people and commodities, which means that countries can market their products anywhere in the world to advance their economic performance. The process has also increased the arena in which countries can operate economically, unlike in the past where they could market their goods only in their countries. Although countries in the Global North have taken different development paths, international trade has played a critical role in the development process of a country.
Trade has always been a key factor in the economic development of a country. Many nations around the world engage in the production of various products and services that they must market to generate income and profits to support their development goals. Therefore, the prudent utilization of trade can help to boost the economic development of a nation and also support the development paths for trading partners. Prominent economists support the argument that the openness of the global economy to trade by different countries has been a force towards development in recent decades because states have a massive market for their products and services. In the modern global economic system, the ability to market goods and services anywhere in the world has played a significant role in developing states. Countries gain more from the potential of selling their products globally and the capacity to source whatever they need from trading partners.
Through international trade, countries can market their final products and also a source for intermediate products. From the perspective of endowment theory, countries have different levels of resources and materials to support their development. For example, while some countries are rich in raw materials, others have the technology to transform the raw materials into finished products for different markets. From such a perspective, the countries can only depend on others to transform their raw materials into final products through manufacturing and market them in the global market to generate revenue that supports economic development. The theory suggests that it is impossible for a country to develop when operating individually. The internal market is no longer sufficient to produce and sell products and services at such a level that supports economic development. The dependence in the international market is a critical factor in helping the economic development process in any state. International trade has created an intricate network of economic interaction that can no longer be ignored for economic prosperity.
Market access is critical for economic development, as many countries depend on trade to grow economically. The factor is important for developed and developing countries as they continue to develop their factors of production and the finished products for different markets around the world. Although market access is not equal for all countries around the world, the factor remains critical in determining the level of development of a state. Some countries have greater market access for their products and services, which has given them a developmental advantage over others, such as low-income countries, which have less access. Therefore, economic development is pegged on the ability of a country to access the wide international market to sell their goods and services, as well as to develop their technology to continue producing superior goods. Therefore, international trade and its role in development depend on the level to which a state has market access to support its development goals.
Over the past century, although the development pattern for counties around the world has differed, trade remains one of the most important forces in the developmental process. Many states have improved their trading relationships with others due to the globalization process, which enables the movement of goods and services across national borders. The increase in international trade has led to sustained economic growth and development in many countries, further supporting the claim that the latter plays a vital role in the economic development of countries around the world. Basically, through international trade, countries can acquire raw materials from and market final products to their trading partners. The trade relationships enable countries to generate the revenue that they require to support their developmental objectives. International trade offers countries a ready market for their goods, raw and finished, which is beneficial since they are endowed differently. Besides, it helps states to focus on their economic strengths, such as those involved in the production of raw materials and those with technology to produce superior finished products.
Question 4: Global Health
Global health issues are no longer local due to the increasing interconnectedness through globalization. Therefore, any attempts to address health issues should be global to be successful. In the modern world, global health networks have developed in the last century and strive to address emerging health issues, such as infectious diseases. The networks bring together individuals, organizations, and states, united through common interests and health concerns, as well as to deal with challenges affecting the health of populations and masses around the world. They have continued to create health policy and governance procedures to address current and emerging global health concerns. Although some health issues appear to be local, they affect the entire world due to the increased interconnectedness, which means that effective efforts to tackle them should also be global. Besides, comprehensive approaches to a real-world global health crisis, such as the COVID-19 outbreak, have transformed the dynamics of the crisis.
Globalization and the increased interconnectedness in the world today makes it impossible to localize health issues. For example, highly infectious diseases spread widely because of the ease with which people move across national borders. People carry infectious agents, such as the new coronavirus, and spread across a broad geographic region. The first case of the viral infection was identified in China (localized dimension), but within less than a month, new cases started to emerge in other countries around the world. The infection rate of the virus has resulted from the ease with which infected persons move from one country to another, infecting many others who they come into contact with. Currently, the COVID-19 crisis has become a global pandemic, with infections in almost all countries. While local efforts are necessary to deal with global health pandemic, they cannot be effective due to its global nature. As a result, global organizations and countries have joined in the efforts to address the crisis, such as monetary and material support from the World Health Organization (WHO), to enable countries to deal with the pandemic.
Global health issues can only be addressed adequately through global efforts, such as global health networks. They require global interactions from all affected parties and forces to come up with solutions beneficial to all states around the world. For example, in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, some countries, especially in the developing world, lack the necessary resources to address the issue. Countries in some parts of Asia, Sub-Saharan African, and the Middle East lack the resources to develop a vaccine for the disease. Therefore, they rely on the developed world and global health networks to develop a successful vaccine for the virus. Furthermore, they lack other resources, such as testing kits and oxygen machines, to control the infections. Such countries depend on the global efforts to deal with the pandemic, such as donations from countries, such as the US and China, and financial aid from WHO and other global organizations. Global efforts have played a vital role in the ongoing efforts to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
Global interactions, forces, and tensions, play a vital role in global attempts to deal with health challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Global efforts experience the difficulty of problem definition and positioning within the global agenda. Notably, when many players emerge in finding a solution to a local or global issue, tensions are most likely to occur and hinder success in resolving it. Many players are less likely to agree or take longer to agree compared to localized actors. Therefore, framing, which is the construction of meaning that enables people to understand and resolve it, is problematic due to global tensions. Regardless of the challenges, current health concerns can only be effectively addressed by framing them and finding a solution on a global scale. Otherwise, global partners will be counterproductive in findings solutions to global challenges through a localized lens. Through effective coalition-building, global actors will play an essential role in addressing the current crisis and saving masses from death and suffering due to the COVID-19 crisis. Besides, the involvement of global health networks has changed the course in addressing the crisis, and the world joins in the effort to control the pandemic.
Global health networks are critical in coordinating efforts to address global health issues since globalization has made them widespread and no longer localized. The ease of movement enables the spreading of health issues, such as COVID-19 and their effect from a localized dimension to a global reach. Therefore, attempts to address the problems can only be effective if they are global in nature. A seemingly local question, such as the first case of the new coronavirus in China, becomes a global pandemic very fast due to the ease of movement of infectious agents. As a result, regardless of tensions and challenges in framing health issues, global solutions are the only means to successfully deal with the crises. The current COVID-19 crisis has attracted a global attention since the solution will emanated from the shared efforts to fight a common global enemy.