Global Crises, Global Solutions

Rating:
Summary: Directly addressing problems facing the world today
Review: Global Crises, Global Solutions is an anthology of scholarly essays by learned authors directly addressing problems facing the world today, such as climate change, financial instability, communicable diseases, conflicts, cooruption, malnutrition and hunger, trade barriers, water access and more. Each problem is discussed from the point of view of an expert skilled at analyzing the problem's scale as well as cost-and-benefit policy options for improving the situation. Shorter pieces from additional experts with alternative positions provide balance in this superb springboard for debate and understanding key issues. Especially recommended reading for government employees, non-governmental organizations, students of public policy and applied economics, and any individual with a direct personal or professional interest in global development issues.


Rating:
Summary: No Minor Problems Here
Review: This book talks about ten of the most serious challenges facing the world today:

climate change
communicable diseases
conflicts and arms proliferation
access to educationfinancial instability
governance and corruption
malnutrition and hunger
migration
sanitation and clean water
subsidies and trade barriers.

You certainly can't accuse them of taking on minor issues.

Each issue is introduced by an expert in the field who defines the scale of the problem and describes the costs and benefits of a range of policy options to improve the situation. After that two additional sets of alternate perspectives age given for each proposal.

The one complaint I have is that in the section on conflicts it talks only about civil war. While civil war is not minor (21 major conflicts in 2002 alone) the prospects for the future of conflict between the muslim world and the rest seem to be worthy of a category by itself, and may involve many more people than all 21 civil wars. Perhaps this is another book in its own right.