Death, inequality, recession: The COVID-19 mirror
It has been almost a year since the declaration of the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic. It was one of the most tragic years in history. Millions were infected by the virus, and hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives. It traumatized tens of millions of people around the world.
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2020: A year of crisis for US, China and WHO
A year ago, the world was expecting different things from the year 2020. There were already too many unknowns about world affairs. U.S. President Donald Trump and his presidential style generated too many uncertainties about U.S. foreign policy and international relations.
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Sooner or later life will return to normal, but that shouldn't mean forgetting coronavirus lessons
The coronavirus caught a great majority of people off guard with its speed of dissemination and its ratio of killing people around the world. Warnings of many experts and intelligence about the emergence of such nontraditional threats to international security were not taken seriously.
For many, one would assume the U.S. was the country best prepared for a pandemic like that of the coronavirus. As the global superpower, possible threats posed against it are expected to be well studied and researched. Indeed, they have been. For the last 20 years, the potential impact of a contagious disease on national security has been the subject of various intelligence and security assessments.
There is no clear and credible scientific data available yet to indicate when the coronavirus will end. There are some projections and more speculations about it. For some, it may wind down by the end of summer; for others it will end only to make a stronger comeback in fall. In the last two months, different people from the U.S. administration have provided a different set of projections. U.S. President Donald Trump, who once said, “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear” seems to have adopted a cautious perspective about a potential timeline. He now believes the crisis may continue until the end of summer.
Coronavirus pandemic worse than we think
Since the spread of the coronavirus worldwide, many have argued that the response will influence various dimensions of the international system.
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The pandemic that haunts the world
Since the emergence of the coronavirus epidemic in different parts of the world, many have argued that the response of this epidemic will influence various dimensions of the international system. There were debates about international actors and organizations and their potential role during this epidemic. In this column, for instance, the potential impact of the World Health Organization (WHO) will be discussed.
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Two weeks ago in this column, it was stated that the new coronavirus epidemic should serve as a wake-up call for the international community to better prepare for the next outbreak.
In 2003, the SARS virus was one of the first wake-up calls for the pro-globalization crowd in regard to the potential impacts of the erosion of borders vis-a-vis the spread of diseases. Although pandemics were nothing new for the world, the rapid spread of the SARS virus generated concerns about the future.
In a world where boundaries are so transparent and economic and social lives are so closely connected we have many reasons to be pessimistic regarding how epidemic outbreaks can be prevented.
