The US and Earth: 'Don't Look Up,' 'Armageddon,' 'World War Z'

It has now been almost a decade since scholars, observers and policymakers started discussing the state of U.S. leadership in the world.

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The US and Earth 'Don't Look Up ' 'Armageddon '
Erdoğan's two critical meetings at Rome summit

Erdoğan's two critical meetings at Rome summit

From the war on terror to the Eastern Mediterranean puzzle, the president discussed a series of serious issues with his counterparts Biden and Macron at the G-20 gathering

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The Rome meeting has shown once again how countries need one another to combat existing security crises

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the standing and popularity of major economies around the world. None of the top three major economies handled the pandemic well. China, as the epicenter of the pandemic and its failure to inform the world about it; the EU, as the second epicenter of the pandemic and its failure to help member countries; and the United States, as the third epicenter of the outbreak and its failure to contain the crisis, all lost credibility.

Scholars, analysts and experts of international relations and international political economy all agree that the coronavirus pandemic has pushed the world into one of its most significant and complicated crises since World War II.

If we forget COVID-19 outbreak...

Sooner or later life will return to normal, but that shouldn't mean forgetting coronavirus lessons

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If we forget COVID-19 outbreak
US moves toward elections amid COVID-19-induced changes

US moves toward elections amid COVID-19-induced changes

Last week this column addressed how the coronavirus can change the debates and domestic dynamics of the U.S. elections. The crisis management and leadership in handling the outbreak, the economy – in particular, unemployment rates – and the state of the health care sector in the U.S. were cited as potential issues that may arise or be amplified as a result of the pandemic.

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The Donald Trump administration insists on offloading blame for the COVID-19 pandemic on China.

The current United States government, which has been remaining indifferent to global developments and has been following unilateral policies, undermined the coronavirus as long as its impact was limited to China and before it was declared a pandemic.

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.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, there has been a major debate among the scholars and observers of international politics about the potential impact of this pandemic on the international system. The debate focuses on the outbreak and precautions that nations took to stop the spread of it.

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.

Is the U.N. going to fulfill its role and its premises to stop the genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, humanitarian disasters and massacres around the world? Or is it going to watch as people suffer in different parts of the world?

In Jordan and Lebanon, Syrian women often experience intense exploitation, particularly if they represent a vulnerable sector of society – whether a widow, single woman or an undocumented resident.