Coronavirus Crisis And The Future Of The World Order

There is no doubt that the past few months have let countries scrambling to address the pandemic that has already infected 2.2 million lives and caused over 150,000 deaths. The scale of the geographic spread of infection led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare it as a pandemic on March 11. What leaders have not considered is that the pandemic is here to stay for some time and even if it were to end, the long-term impact is bound to change global politics forever.

- Priya Vijaykumar Poojary

The crisis has brought three issues to surface that need careful consideration and action: containment of the pandemic, economic implication of the crisis, and the erosion of the rule of law. The response to the pandemic so far has been on the national level. States have resolved to use national instruments and measures to contain the spread of the virus by placing countrywide lockdowns, banning international and domestic travels, and mobilising their health system. The actions of the states have only furthered Trump’s neoconservative assertions synonymous with the rise of right-wing political parties across the world.

The varied responses by the states to the pandemic in terms of approaching the crisis as a health concern or as an economic issue lays bare the underlying confusion in terms of what takes precedence – individuals or economy? This was evident in certain governments’ hesitance to impose lockdowns fearing economic losses or the burden of releasing fiscal packages, the recovery of which might just take years.