Can going on an exchange program prepare medical students for tomorrow’s health challenges? Is it really worth it to explore health systems in  different cultural and social settings? Is it necessary to learn more about Global Health challenges while studying medicine?There is no doubt that society in general is becoming increasingly globalized, and this is seen through increased international travel.

Actually, the thought of integration came from President Ho Chi Minh. In December 1946, he sent a letter sent to the United Nations, written in French, with the following content: Vietnam is ready to open its doors for foreign businesses and experts to do business in Vietnam, and allow other countries to use Vietnam’s roads, ports and airports for transit. 

History shows that cities have tended to embrace international opportunities in waves and cycles. They rarely break out into global activity by themselves. Cities participate in collective movements or networks to take advantage of new conditions, and often their demise or withdrawal from a global orientation is also experienced jointly with other cities as circumstances change, affecting many at once.

May’s focus was on the need to ensure that the benefits of "liberalism and globalisation" are more evenly distributed.  For her, the EU referendum and the US presidential election should be read as wake-up call. Important as this analysis may be for electoral politics, it does not set out a clear road map for the UK’s future foreign policy.

Ken Liu is a prolific and award-winning author of stories that span the galaxies of futurism and fantasy. He also happens to interpret one cultural constellation for another: Liu is the leading translator of Chinese science fiction into English. “Science fiction can’t tell us a lot about the future,” he insists. “It’s more interesting for what it says about the society that produces it.”