-The editor and his contributors are prestigious in the global health community, many holding positions as affiliated with the World Health Organization. Also, Gunn is a head of the Society for Humanitarian Medicine.

""Health is not escaping the current bulldozer of 'globalization,' with its attendant benefits, errors, complications, and unknowns. Economic, social, political, environmental, behavioural, and even transcendental factors are being perceived as shaping the increasingly borderless world order, and societal structures, including the health professional, are finding themselves ill prepared for the changes...This book is an attempt to understand, explain and if possible act on the transformations....It is highly recommended as a welcome collection of level-headed analyses of the current confused transmutations in disease theory and health action" (Journal of Humanitarian Medicine, vol. IV, no. 4, October-December 2004).

Contents Introduction Section I: Fundamentals 1. A brief history of advances towards health John Last 2. The health, poverty and development merry-go-round: the tribulations of WHO Socrates Litsios 3. Old and new pestilences Andrew A. Arata 4. Value systems and healthcare ethics Bernard M. Dickens 5. World health: a mobilizing utopia? M. Manciaux T. M. Fliedner Section II: Systems 6. Health policies versus public policies Andrzej Wojtczak 7. A medicine based on evidence J. Szczerban 8. The promise of technology P. B. Mansourian 9. Critical inquiries on technology utilization Arminee Kazanjian 10. Therapeutic patient education for chronic diseases Jean-Philippe Assal Section III: The Dynamics 11. The humanitarian imperative in major health crises and disasters S. W. A. Gunn 12. Dealing with global infectious disease emergencies David L. Heymann 13. Knowledge-based methodologies in the health sector B. McA. Sayers Juan J. Angulo 14. Food safety - a pressing public health and economic issue Fritz Käferstein 15. Future health in an ageing world A. Michael Davies Section IV: The Controversies 16. Disease and health in the cultural context Assen Jablensky 17. Global issues and health interactions: reflexions from the south A. P. R. Aluwihare 18. The coming storm: health system planning versus free market enterprise Anthony Piel 19. Education, understanding, and eudaemonia: a contrarian view on global health Gerhard W. Brauer Postscript 'The Present and the Future of Global Health' A. Michael Davies The Contributors Index