The idea of issues that are truly global in scale is new to us. It emerged late in the twentieth century, perhaps when humans first saw images of the Earth from space – a small blue-green planet devoid of boundaries and arbitrary political divisions. The concept is still new enough to be ridiculed or resisted by individuals and institutions that see the world from the traditional perspective of state sovereignty.

Regardless of their novelty, global issues are so important that they may literally determine the future of the human species. Global issues impact all social, environmental, economic, health, and security concerns. And those concerns are, in themselves, global issues.

At this point, there seems to be only minimal agreement among nations and policymakers about the scope and scale of global issues. National perceptions and interests still drive most analyses of, and responses to, them. There is, in fact, no internationally agreed upon definition of global issues, nor is there a concerted plan of action to deal with them.

For the purpose of this guide, we will define global issues as issues that:

• Have significant impacts for large numbers of people
• Are trans-national
• Are persistent, or long-acting
• Are interconnected

To expand upon this, global issues are those that have, or hold the potential for, far-reaching impacts on large numbers of people. The issue of peace and conflict is one example. Populations and communities in areas of conflict suffer the direct humanitarian and environmental impacts of war, while refugees may impact neighboring countries or regions. Citizens of nations far away may be forced to pay taxes to support peacekeeping, military intervention, or containment efforts, and all nations and people may be threatened should the conflict escalate and weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical, nuclear or biological devices, be employed.

Global issues are trans-national, or trans-boundary, in that they are beyond the capability of any one nation to resolve. The United States, for example, despite its vast wealth and powerful military, cannot by itself address global warming. Even though the U.S. could suffer severely from climate change – including inundation of coastal communities, casualty losses from extreme weather events, crop failures due to heat or drought, or inflows of refugees from other affected areas that are less able to deal with such impacts – it cannot offset this potential disaster without a comprehensive agreement with most other nations.

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