Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Beginning of the End Due to Covid-19 Pandemic


Fri 17 Apr 2020 | 09:30 AM
opinion .

The scientist, "Stephen Walt," International Relations Professor at Harvard University in America, believes that the Covid-19 pandemic will contribute to strengthening the country and promoting patriotism, and that governments around the world will adopt emergency measures to manage the epidemic crisis. However, many of these governments will not want to abandon new powers when the crisis ends.

May be the Covid-19 epidemic spread would accelerate the power pace and influence shifting from West to East, as evidenced by the response of eastern countries to face the disease such as; South Korea and Singapore, which would be better than European countries and the United States of America.

Meanwhile, the China's handling of the epidemic was good, despite faltering in the beginning. Upon discovering the virus, Beijing strived to contain it in comparison to the slow and frustrated response in Europe and America. Covid-19 is one of the things that has distorted the aura that has long surrounded Western engagement.

According to Walt, the current epidemic will not contribute to changing the prevailing global politics characterized by conflict, demonstrating that the epidemics that passed on mankind before; it did not put an end to rivalry between the superpowers and were not the starting point for a new era of global cooperation.

Meanwhile, the American magazine "Foreign Policy" confirmed that the epidemic will destroy many lives, disrupt markets and expose governments, likely to cause fundamental shifts in political and economic forces.

In an attempt to make matters more clear, the magazine asked a number of diplomats, experts, and political analysts to reveal their expectations about what will happen in the world after the virus ends, and it came as follows:

The US Deputy Director-General for the International Institute for Strategic Studies Cory Shack, said that after the crisis, the United States would not be seen as a "leader or international leader" because of the administration's behavior based on its gross lack of competence.

She noted in her expectation published on "Foreign Policy" that it would have been possible to mitigate the global effects of this epidemic significantly, if international organizations provided more information early, which would have provided time for governments to prepare and direct the necessary resources .

Shack considered that the United States could have played this role and organized its efforts to demonstrate that its interest is not focused solely on American internal affairs, but Washington failed to stand the leadership test. As a result of failure, things around the whole world became worse.

According to Nicholas Burns a professor at Harvard University and US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs between 2005 and 2008, So far, international cooperation is not enough, and the United States and China, the world's most powerful country cannot abandon their war of words.

Burns avoided arguments about which of the two is responsible for the crisis, and which of the two is able to lead it more effectively, and the position of the two countries is likely to affect its credibility significantly.

The dependence on the mutual globalization idea after the end of the Corona epidemic that prevailed at the beginning of the 21th century, and without the systems existence which bring common benefits, it is difficult for the global financial systems that we know now to continue, and will deteriorate quickly.

By Dr. Azab Alaziz Alhashemi