These first two weeks will introduce you to the concept of global health through a range of perspectives from three keynote speakers, draw out some of their key thoughts, explore these with examples, and determine whether we can clearly conclude upon a definition of Global Health. We will be using various educational platforms to navigate the question 'What is Global Health?' - some short video narrations from me, expert thoughts from our three keynote speakers and some external documentary videos and articles.

We will first re-visit part of last week's keynote video and discuss their thoughts on what global health is, and bring particular focus to the origin and evolution of the term, the main organisations and agencies involved in global health and the influence of private and commercial organisations on global health.

This week we will consider what gives rise to a humanitarian emergency. We will look at different types of hazard, and how these combine with vulnerability to give rise to a disaster. We will then go on to think about how responses to such phenomena are organised: Who undertakes these? What phases do they go through?

Last week we looked at the nature of 'disasters' and examined a possible set of humanitarian responses to disaster. We concluded by considering the problem of mitigation, leading us to complex ethical questions that make the main focus of the course this week. In particular we will look at the way humanitarian agencies bear witness to the actions of others, and the problem, or requirement, of holding people accountable for these actions.

In the previous weeks of this course, you learned about the origins, key agencies and different approaches of humanitarianism. As the world becomes more interconnected as a result of globalisation, increased migration and technology, disasters (both natural and man-made) are no longer of local but global concern. The right to assistance for those affected by armed conflict and natural disasters is at the forefront of humanitarian action.

Moving on from last week, where we examined the right to humanitarian assistance and the obstacles and challenges surrounding its practice, this week we explore another controversial issue within humanitarianism: the responsibility to protect, or more commonly known as R2P.