argue that a social media campaign dissipates quickly if organizers cannot meet their followers’ expectations.
Christians in the Middle East
The number of Christians in the Middle East has been falling for more than a century, due mainly to emigration and lower birth rates. But the decline has intensified since the early 2000s, as Christians and other religious minorities have faced increased persecution and violence due to wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, the rise of extremist groups such as the Islamic State and instability following the Arab Spring democracy movements that began in 2011. Tension also has been rising between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which represent opposite sides of Islam’s Sunni-Shiite divide and where religious restrictions remain among the most severe in the world. While some exiled Christians are trying to return to their old homes, experts are not optimistic that the outflow from the region will slow; nor do they expect the Middle East to become more hospitable to religious minorities. Experts say the plight of these minorities reflects a dangerous lack of pluralism and respect for human rights in many of the area’s societies.
Environmental Issues
Extreme Weather
Climate scientists say that rising global temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions are making some extreme weather events increasingly likely and severe. They predict that heat waves, wildfires, hurricanes and other weather-related disasters will continue to set records and send damage costs soaring, even as countries around the world pledge to reduce emissions in response to global warming. Climate change skeptics, including President Trump and some conservatives, say fears that carbon emissions are making severe weather more frequent and more destructive are largely groundless, and administration officials are taking steps to minimize the role that climate science plays in setting government policies. Recent trends in extreme weather have led many experts to ask whether initiatives such as the financially troubled National Flood Insurance Program should continue to subsidize repeated rebuilding in disaster-prone areas. Some experts believe people living in such areas should be encouraged to leave. Others disagree, saying people have the right to live where they choose.
Climate Change and Health
Scientists warn that a warming planet threatens human health. A United Nations agency estimates climate change will cause 250,000 additional deaths annually between 2030 and 2050. The threat is multifaceted. Prolonged droughts are causing malnutrition in Africa, while extreme heat is leading to spikes in heat stroke in places as diverse as Baltimore and Paris. Across the globe, changing climes are worsening allergies and increasing the deadly reach of illnesses such as malaria, dengue fever and West Nile virus. But consensus is lacking about what to do. Some experts argue the threat is exaggerated because people will adapt to the changing climate. Others say nations must quickly reduce carbon emissions to limit global warming and protect human health. Environmental activists are amplifying that message. One survey found that respondents ranked climate change as the top threat in 13 of 26 countries polled. In the United States, however, only 27 percent of Republicans—versus 83 percent of Democrats—view climate change as a major threat.
Fuel Efficiency Standards
President Trump is significantly reducing federal fuel efficiency and emissions standards for vehicles to below those set by the Obama administration. The Obama regulations required automakers to build vehicle fleets that would average about 54 mpg by 2025. The Trump rule cuts the requirement to about 40 mpg by 2026. Trump has also revoked a waiver that allowed California to set stricter standards, which are followed by several other states. The Trump administration contends its rule will save consumers billions of dollars in vehicle costs and will spur a move to new, cleaner and safer vehicles. Opponents say the rule will endanger public health and accelerate climate change by putting into the air more pollutants and greenhouse gases that cause global warming, especially carbon dioxide. The battle over the standards has divided automobile manufacturers and led a coalition of states headed by California, along with a dozen environmental groups, to sue to block the Trump administration’s fuel efficiency and emissions rollback.
Preface
In this pivotal era of international policymaking, scholars, students, practitioners and journalists seek answers to such critical questions as: Will climate change set off a global health catastrophe? Is a denuclearization agreement with North Korea possible? Can companies adjust their global supply chains to Trump’s tariffs and still grow? Students must first understand the facts and contexts of these and other global issues if they are to analyze and articulate well-reasoned positions.
The 2021 edition of Global Issues provides comprehensive and unbiased coverage of today’s most pressing global problems. This edition is a compilation of 16 recent reports from CQ Researcher, a weekly policy brief that unpacks difficult concepts and provides balanced coverage of competing perspectives. Each article analyzes past, present and possible political maneuvering, is designed to promote in-depth discussion and further research and helps readers formulate their own positions on crucial international issues.
This collection is organized into four subject areas that span a range of important international policy concerns: conflict, security, and terrorism; international political economy; religious and human rights; and environmental issues. Global Issues is a valuable supplement for courses on world affairs in political science, geography, economics and sociology. Citizens, journalists and business and government leaders also turn to it to become better informed on key issues, actors and policy positions.
CQ Researcher
CQ Researcher was founded in 1923 as Editorial Research Reports and was sold primarily to newspapers as a research tool. The magazine was renamed and redesigned in 1991 as CQ Researcher. Today, students are its primary audience. While still used by hundreds of journalists and newspapers, many of which reprint portions of the reports, Researcher’s main subscribers are now high school, college and public libraries. In 2002, Researcher won the American Bar Association’s coveted Silver Gavel Award for magazine excellence for a series of nine reports on civil liberties and other legal issues.
Researcher writers—all highly experienced journalists—sometimes compare the experience of writing a Researcher report to drafting a college term paper. Indeed, there are many similarities. Each report is as long as many term papers—about 10,000 words—and is written by one person without any significant outside help. One of the key differences is that the writers interview leading experts, scholars and government officials for each issue.
Like students, writers begin the creative process by choosing a topic. Working with Researcher’s editors, the writer identifies a controversial subject that has important public policy implications. After a topic is selected, the writer embarks on one to two weeks of intense research. Newspaper and magazine articles are clipped or downloaded, books are ordered and information is gathered from a wide variety of sources, including interest groups, universities and the government. Once the writers are well informed, they develop a detailed outline and begin the interview process. Each report requires a minimum of ten to fifteen interviews with academics, officials, lobbyists and people working in the field. Only after all interviews are completed does the writing begin.
Chapter Format
Each issue of CQ Researcher, and therefore each selection in this book, is structured in the same way. A selection begins with an introductory overview, which is briefly explored in greater detail in the rest of the report.
The second section chronicles the most important and current debates in the field. It is structured around a number of key issues questions, such as “Can Iran’s economy survive under Trump’s sanctions?” and “Does the BRI increase the chances for military conflict between the United States and China?” This section is the core of each selection. The questions raised are often highly controversial and usually the object of