countries of the South, the environmental issue is inextricably linked
to poverty, given that the worst problem remains access to water.
More than one billion people have no access to drinking water, and
more than a third of the world’s population (2.4 billion people) do
not have adequate sanitation facilities.^79 Contaminated water and
unhealthy sewage systems are the cause of 5 million deaths per year
and the source of 80 percent of the infectious diseases that afflict
developing countries.^80 The environmental problems in the rich coun-
tries are no doubt different from those in the poor countries, but the
solution in all cases depends on the awareness that to be viable eco-
nomic growth must be subordinated to social priorities.
From a political point of view, the international system faces chronic
insecurity and a significant democratic deficit. Even though inter-state
conflicts have in recent years been less numerous than intra-state con-
flicts (Chechnya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda,
Sudan, former Yugoslavia, etc.), the world continues to find itself in
the throes of war and organized violence. However shocking this
situation may be, it is not entirely surprising in light of the fact that
the yearly global arms trade amounts to $1 trillion, while the UN’s
regular budget hovers around $3.2 billion.^81 In most instances, pov-
erty and economic disparities are the engines that drive armed conflicts.
The rise of international terrorism, moreover, can only be fully under-
stood as another consequence of the failure of economic develop-
ment. Since the end of the Cold War, the international community has
constantly run into the same problem in trying to manage crisis upon
crisis: it has proven to be completely incapable of establishing the
primacy of law and morality over national interests. As a result of
its illegitimacy and illegality, the war launched by the United States
against Iraq in 2003 offers the perfect illustration of this syndrome,
aptly demonstrating that what does or does not constitute a threat to
international security is determined by the rule of “might makes right.”
Geneva, 2003 (www.unep.org/themes/climatechange/PDF/ipcc_wgii_79 guide-E.pdf).
80 UNDP,Human Development Report 2003, p. 103.
81 See Annan, “We the Peoples,” p. 60.
See SIPRI, “Recent Trends in Military Expenditure” (www.sipri.org/contents/
milap/milex/mex_trends.html) and Angela Drakulich (ed.),A Global Agenda:
Issues before the 60th General Assembly of the United Nations, New York,
United Nations Association of the USA, 2005, pp. 293–95.
78 Left and Right in Global Politics