Global health is a relatively new but rapidly expanding field as public health practitioners recognize the important challenges that global changes are posing for human health. Increasingly the determinants of health circumvent, undermine or are oblivious to the territorial boundaries of states. To effectively address health concerns exceeds the capacity of individual countries acting alone through domestic institutions. The issues covered include: food, tobacco and pharmaceuticals; emerging infectious diseases; climate change; economy and trade; and, security and governance.