The Geopolitical Effects of the Corona Crisis

This essay focuses on evaluating the geopolitical effects of the coronavirus crisis on the key conflicts in contemporary world politics. In liberal eyes, the outbreak of the coronavirus seems to justify the liberal arguments about the global and trans-national nature of threats to all of humankind. Such threats should compel large scale international cooperation among states and the construction of powerful international institutions. At the same time, there are some grounds for concern that the post-coronavirus world might be less liberal and pursue less international cooperation—even if it is not fully rational in light of the need for greater international cooperation in order to cope effectively with epidemics. At this stage, it is quite worrisome that it looks as authoritarianism, nationalism, and unilateralism have accumulated some advantages and that this outcome will aggravate the struggles inside and among states and also great-power competition, notably the rivalry between China and the US.