Before proceeding to a conclusion, two final words. On risk. Like health, risk is a socially constructed category that changes within the complex norms and values of a given society or culture. What is an acceptable level of risk at one period of time, may not be in another; what is an acceptable level of risk for one group (e.g. others), may not be for another (e.g. ourselves) 8 . Notions of risk are negotiated within the political process; notions of crises, their relative severity and the amounts of resources to be devoted to them emerge from the complex processes of bargaining within the political process. When the site of the political process is global, rather than national, and when the mechanisms for decision making lack the force of national sovereignty, the complex calibrations of acceptable risk compound exponentially.