Daily Times

The coronavirus outbreak is the biggest challenge for humanity since the World War II, as stated by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The pandemic has killed more than 100,000 people all over the world and has affected the normalcy of life in more than 184 countries. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s emergency programme, said that health systems around the world are about to collapse. The number of infected people soared to 1.8 million. The pandemic has put the major supply chains to a halt. Air and water corridors and roads, parks, and tourist spots are empty all over the globe. Millions have become unemployed.

The potential aftermath of COVID-19 shatters the ambition of the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ending poverty by 2030 due to a multi-fold increase in relative and absolute poverty. In recent estimates, the contractions of 20 percent in per capita incomes will drag 420 million people below the US$1.9/day poverty line. It will reverse the journey of poverty alleviation to ten years back from now.

The coronavirus outbreak has challenged the sufficiency of medical research and health infrastructure worldwide. In terms of the scope of its effects, the pandemic is even worse than the World War II. Amid the devastating human and financial loss, the UN Secretary-General’s call for global ceasefire is an invitation for all member countries to reframe the conception of “enemy”.

During the last two decades, the world has witnessed periodic military conflicts. The total human casualties during military combats in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and others are 770,000- 801,000, approximately. The global spending on defence has reached its peak since 1988 as well as being 76 percent higher than the post-cold war low of 1998. The total military expenditure increased to 2.6 percent to $1.8 trillion in 2018-2019.

In his recent statement, Guterres welcomed the encouraging response to his call from various conflict partners in the Central African Republic, Colombia, Libya, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and upend lives. Guterres said, “We need to do everything possible to find the peace and unity our world so desperately needs to battle COVID-19.”

The response to this human catastrophe should be substantively comparable to the one by the Allied Powers after the World War II constituting United Nations

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, during the UN Security Council meeting held on April 9 to discuss the pandemic, said, “To win against it and to overcome its consequences we need also to overcome our prejudices, phobias, hatreds, distrust, suspicions.” US Ambassador Kelly Craft also asserted that the threat of COVID-19 “requires global action, international solidarity, and unity of purpose.”

Despite all positive gestures, however, the UN Security Council bears the utmost responsibility to set the modalities for equal distribution of power space in the world’s politics and reduce the weaponisation cost on the world’s GDP. 2,000 people are dying daily in the United States due to coronavirus, a country short of ventilators for patients but the US displays military might worth billions of dollars in every corner of the globe with a slogan to “protect its citizens.”

A systematic response can reshuffle the priorities of global diplomacy: more focus to induce a sense of global togetherness, and to address the incapacity of governance systems to suppress disease and deprivation. The response to this human catastrophe should be substantively comparable to the one by the Allied Powers after the World War II constituting United Nations.

The challenge is to overwhelm the recent wave of populist nationalism with an unprecedented urge to dominate using trade and technology. The Secretary General’s call for a global ceasefire would remain rhetoric if not supported by an actionable strategy. What is required is aw-making to revitalise the social contract between citizens and states, to address the misappropriate spending of the world’s GDP on non-welfare sectors, to find an out-of-the-box approach to conflict management by putting aside trivial identities based on economic interests, race, colour, and religion.

The writer is an acaademic and public policy researcher. He can be contacted on his Email: wajahatiiui@gmail.com