A presentation to the first European conference of Law Enforcement and Public Health, Umea Sweden, May 22nd-24th 2023; on geopolitical trends and concerns for policing and public health improvement 20230625 middletonj LEPH UMEA healthy State delivered presentation.pptx

1. A Healthy State ?
Geopolitical threats to safety and health
Professor John Middleton
Honorary Professor of Public Health, Wolverhampton University UK,
Immediate Past President, Association Schools of Public Health in the European Region
Vice President, Global Network for Academic Public Health

2. Values?
Political and societal constraints?
Policing for public order and control?
Policing for public protection, and
community safety
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

3. Political and societal constraints?
National politics shape policing and public health
Geopolitics affects all administrations, policing and
public heath services
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

4. Political and societal constraints?
National politics shapes policing and public health: extremes of
authoritarian or democratic ?
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

5. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Political and societal constraints?
National politics shapes policing and public health:

6. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Political and societal constraints?
National politics shapes policing and public health:

7. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Political and societal constraints?
National politics shapes policing and public health:

8. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Political and societal constraints?
National politics shapes policing and public health:

9. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Political and societal constraints?
National politics shapes policing and public health:

10. Political and societal constraints?
Geopolitics affects all administrations, policing and public heath services
4 main aspects to my presentation today:
Neoliberalism: creating the drive for uncontrolled globalization/ colonialization of health damaging
manufacturing and services by multinational companies set against a drive for low tax/ small state policies
The ‘Sovereign individuals’, the rise of the super-rich, oligarchy, increasing inequality through the offshoring
of wealth.
And the rise of populism, accelerating political corruption and distrust of governments, creating culture
wars; leading to politic instability across the globe, creating conditions of fear, distrust and opportunities
for conflict….
The information revolution has influenced all of these: the explosion of social media, and industrial
disinformation undermining individual thinking and undermining democratic processes
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

11. Neoliberalism
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
The rule of the market
Cutting public expenditure for social services
Deregulation
Privatisation
Eliminating the concept of ‘the public good’
Government represents bureaucratic bloat and political imposition.
Markets embody human freedom. And with markets, people get what they
deserve; to alter the market is to spoil the poor and punish the productive
Friedrich Hayek, Ludvig
von Mises 1938,
published 1944-45

12. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Neoliberalism

13. Neoliberalism
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Friedrich Hayek, Ludvig
von Mises 1938,
published 1944-45

14. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
http://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j4443?sso=

15. https://tobaccotactics.org/article/illicit-tobacco-trade/
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jan/31/duncancampbell

16. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13685201111098879/full/pdf?title=the-dark-
triad-organized-crime-terror-and-fraud

17. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
These 10 Corporations Control Almost Everything We Eat

18. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

19. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

20. Political and societal constraints?
Geopolitics affects all administrations, policing and public heath services
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
The ‘Sovereign individuals’:
the rise of the super rich,
oligarchy,
increasing inequality
through the offshoring of wealth.
‘The Sovereign Individual explores the
social and financial consequences of this
revolutionary change [the information
revolution] Our desire is to help you take
advantage of the opportunities of the new
age and to avoid being destroyed by its
impact.’

21. Political and societal constraints?
Geopolitics affects all administrations, policing and public heath services
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
The ‘Sovereign individuals’:
The ‘Sovereign Individuals’ who will gain most from this liberation are ‘the brightest, most
brightest, most successful and ambitious’ among us, ‘those who can educate and motivate
and motivate themselves …. Genius will be unleashed, freed from both the oppression of
oppression of government.’
‘Persons of even quite modest means will soar as the gravitational pull of politics on the global
politics on the global economy weakens. Unprecedented financial independence will be a
independence will be a reachable goal in your lifetime or that of your children.’
The ‘left-behinds’ realise they have been taken for a ride and their communities
and way of life are under threat. ‘A time of great danger and great reward.’

22. Political and societal constraints?
Geopolitics affects all administrations, policing and public heath services
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
The ‘Sovereign individuals’:
‘The good news is that politicians will no more be able to dominate, suppress and regulate the
greater part of commerce in this new realm’
Governments will have to treat people like customers, ‘and less in a way that organised
criminals treat the victims of a shakedown racket… First in scores, then in hundreds, and
ultimately in the millions, individuals will escape the shackles of politics.’
‘Latter-day barbarians like the Russian mafia, other ethnic criminal gangs, drug lords, and
renegade covert agencies will be laws unto themselves.‘

23. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
The richest billionaires could give
$139,300,000,000 away and still
be as rich as they were in 2020.
These billionaires could end
global hunger for about $300
billion. A fraction of their overall
wealth.
Calls for wealth taxes
Build back
Fairer?

24. John Middleton Global threats to health, Wroclaw, December 1st 2022

25. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

26. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

27. The rise of Populism
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

30. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
“This is not about persuasion: This is about
disorientation.”
"Darkness is good: Dick Cheney. Darth
Vader. Satan. That's power.”
"Let them call you racist, let them call you
xenophobes, let them call you nativists. Wear it like
a badge of honor. Because every day, we get
stronger and they get weaker...History is on our
side and will bring us victory.”
’a worldview popular in far-right and alternative
religious circles that believes progress and equality
are poisonous illusions.’
The rise of Populism

31. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Bannon and Trump:
People in social media world
live in ‘bubbles’ or tribes
Easy to connect with like
minded- marginal beliefs
Uncritical unchallenged
Short attention spans

32. The age of social media, misinformation and disinformation
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Discrimination;
Breaches of privacy;
Iatrogenesis (in
medical informatics);
Misinformation,
Disinformation or
‘fake news’;
And cyber-attacks
[uses and abuses of AI]

33. The age of social media, misinformation and disinformation
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Misinformation: false information that is spread,
regardless of intent to mislead.
Disinformation: false information that is
intentionally designed to mislead.

34. The age of social media, misinformation and disinformation
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Social media
environment
of major
incidents:
Bystanders
inform or
misinform

35. The age of social media, misinformation and disinformation
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Social media
environment of
major incidents:
Trolls in troll
farms disinform

36. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
https://theconversation.com/
uk/topics/russian-trolls-58864

37. The age of social media, misinformation and disinformation
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Infodemics: misappropriating social media - to sway
opinion and behaviour – in this example in vaccine
hesitancy

38. The age of social media, misinformation and disinformation
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
Infodemics:
misappropriating
personal information to
sway opinion and
behaviour – in this
example in elections

39. Political and societal constraints?
Geopolitics affects all administrations, policing and public heath services
The 4 main aspects come together in the Post February 2022 geopolitical world
Neoliberalism
The ‘Sovereign Individuals
The rise of populism
The information
A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

40. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
The oligarchy: the
‘sovereign individuals’

41. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
The oligarchs and political influence

42. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
‘Conservative friends of Russia’: a party
courting Russian money

43. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
‘Conservative
friends of
Russia’: a party
still courting
Russian money
post February
2022

44. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023

45. A Healthy State? John Middleton LEPH European Conference, Umea, Sweden, May 2023
War in Ukraine
Global impacts - food and fuel shortage,
Inflation
Refugees
Impact on old military strategy – Cold war hardware
obsolete
Impact on new military strategy- hand held weapons,
cyber warfare and drones
Highlighting global political corruption

46. • ‘Geopolitical health’:
• The epidemiology of corruption? privacy?
transparency? state of democracy?
Organised crime? Trade?
• ‘The prevention of bad behaviour in politics:
the prevention of dictatorship'

47. William Beveridge designed a welfare state
for the UK in the deepest point of the
Second World War.
‘We should regard want,
idleness , ignorance, squalor
and disease as enemies of us
all. That is the meaning of a
social conscience; that we
refuse to make our separate
peace with evil.’

48. ‘Build back’ ?
To what austerity, poverty, insecurity
and unfairness? Environmental squalor
and health and wealth for some?
‘Plan for an outbreak of health….'

49. Thank you
A Healthy State ?
Geopolitical threats to safety and health
Professor John Middleton
Honorary Professor of Public Health, Wolverhampton University UK,
Immediate Past President, Association Schools of Public Health in the European Region
Vice President, Global Network for Academic Public Health
johnmiddleton@phonecoop.coop

50. A Healthy State ?
Geopolitical threats to safety and health
Thank you also to May Van Schalkwyck, Sebastian Levesque,
Maria Brake, and Martin Mckee

51. What is ASPHER ?
The Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER)
is the key independent European organisation dedicated to strengthening the
role of public health by improving education and training of public health
professionals for both practice and research.
We have 130 member schools of public health in Europe and associates
globally.
We are developing our partnerships with sister public health organisations in
America, Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Arab world in the newly
constituted, Global Network for Academic Public Health (GNAPH)