The world becoming a global village is fairly a new phenomenon steered by the establishment of global financial institutions, post 1945-world order and communication revolution with the invention of internet at the end of 20th century. The world we see today in which societies are interlinked through a complex structure and relations are being managed by state and non-state actors, did not exist before the Second World War, at least not in a formal way. On one side where globalization created new wealth and opportunities with the cross-border flow of people, goods, money and information, on the other hand it exacerbated global disparities, enabled international terrorism and cross-border crime, and allowed rapid spread of disease. And this is how the world got COVID-19. Globalization is not only a major factor behind the spread of COVID-19 but also a solution. This pandemic has highlighted gaps within globalization and divided world opinion into two; one who opine are of opinion that COVID-19 is the last nail in the coffin of globalization, while others argue that it’ll strengthen globalization by enhancing international cooperation on number of issues and resultantly institutionalism will get stronger. There is no doubt that globalization as a phenomenon cannot be undone but can be improved upon and this is where the world must head on to. The current circumstances offer opportunities to perfect the imperfections in the existing system in order to create a hope for a better world tomorrow. Before accessing the opportunities, it is imperative to understand that the pandemic that travelled all the way from Wuhan to the whole world has exposed flaws and weaknesses within the global systems of health, economy and human rights, hence placed a question mark on the effectiveness of internationalism and institutionalism. As soon as the disease started spreading, it was realized that the only solution to stop this is washing hands and maintaining social distancing. But the question is how one can wash hands if there is no access to water and how one can maintain social distancing in the midst of poverty, lack of education and poor governance? According to UNICEF, globally 156 million children under the age of 5 are stunned and 50 million are wasted due to lack of adequate wash facilities. Around 1 in 4 healthcare facilities lack basic sanitation services impacting over 2 billion people. 900 million school age children lack a hand washing facility. 3 billion people have no hand hygiene facility with water and soap at home. Only 3 out of 5 people worldwide have basic hand washing facilities which tells us a lot about the equality and access to basic human necessities. Apart from exposing flaws within globalization, COVID-19 also presented new opportunities that can create room for effective international cooperation and taking measures can set perfect examples for robust internationalism The Universal Declaration on Human Rights promotes education for all. As education defines behavior so to stop the spread of COVID-19, it was necessary to have a unified behavior all around the world. But what happened or is still happening around the world shows how nations behaved differently. The only solution so far was to flatten the curve. Whether if it was the idea of maintaining social distancing or washing hands properly, it needed awareness on global scale and awareness comes with education. For example, the biggest problem that nation states faced was the spread of fake news regarding the pandemic. And without education and awareness, it is hard to understand what is fake and what is real. Not only in the third world countries but also in developing countries people defied lockdowns and behaved normally in such times with connotation of religious oriented logics. And the reason lies in a fact that this basic necessity i.e. access to education is not accessible for all. According to UNESCO, globally about 258 million children and youth are out of school. The total includes 59 million children of primary school age, 62 million of lower secondary school age and 138 million of upper secondary age. According to Human Rights Watch, COVID-19 placed more than 1.5 billion children in 188 countries out of school that represents over 90% of world student population. It happened because majority of the world’s student population didn’t have online system in place or didn’t have access to internet. In such circumstances, how world can expect a flatten curve in the result of social distancing? The spread of COVID-19 around the globe also exposed health care system. Health-care, a basic human right has presented worst pictures of humanity shackled under the interests of big Multi-National Corporations and the elites’ vested interests. The coronavirus outbreak exposed inefficiencies and inequities in the health system of big and small economies alike. Nation-states with universal health care appeared to have a robust system in place but still struggled to manage effectively. It was realized that global health system was not ready for such a pandemic; hospitals did not have enough ventilators, beds or capacity to test huge number of patients. Many health systems around the world have been hammered to a breaking point some due to under-resourcing, corruption and sanctions, others have closed themselves due to their inability to test patients due to lack of testing equipment, under staff and absence of ventilators. These stats show how vulnerable this health system has become and is in need of emergency measure to fulfill right to live for all. Although universal healthcare is unrealistic due to the interests involved of big corporations and huge profiteering market but little restructuring can result in a better world tomorrow. After billions of years of evolution this is least the world can do. Health care must not be based on the purchasing power but on the need to survive. It demands no discrimination on the basis of legal status or anything else. And the outcry in virtually every country about the lack of equipment and supplies to test for and protect against COVID-19 will push countries to reexamine their supply chains for critical health and livelihood related products. This in result can lead to a surge of nationalism with respect to the need to produce pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, and equipment domestically. Even countries that traditionally had no capability in these areas will seek to develop the same. Furthermore, COVID-19 created a realization that big problems like these cannot be handled unilaterally hence need multilateralism and international cooperation. It illustrated common vulnerability regardless of economic status or prestige, beyond North-South or East-West, and public-private divides. But the practice of nation states regarding precautionary measures showed the absence of unified behavior and lack of leadership at global level. Even up to date most of flights operations are still open and citizens can travel from one place to the other making situations worst. In such hard times, not even once P-5 came together to address the issue and to find a global consensus. Plus the UN didn’t even bother to call an emergency session to take nation-states in confidence. While looking at these practices one can question the validity of UN that if not now than when? And why so much money is poured into UN if it cannot even address the issues that concern the whole of humanity? Institutions being the base of globalization and agents of international governance can overcome political biases while keeping narrow political interests away from the agenda, but if it cannot be done then what is the purpose of having such institutions? These instances are enough to remind the world that some issues demand multilateral approach and in order to keep power politics away for such critical matters institutions are the key and must be strengthened at every cost. The flaws discussed above also offer solutions that can be used to reimagine globalization in order to create a hope for a better future. For example, the global statistics concerning lack of education to the major portion of population can be improved through the inclusion of digital schooling system. Providing access to internet in far flung areas can make this dream possible and can help the world achieving one major SDG goal in a short period of time. Secondly, it has been observed that health care systems around the world has started using digital health technologies and leaders around the world have opted more convenient digital health technologies to reduce the overwhelming burden. In addition to that patients, doctors and home care providers have turned to telemedicine through virtual consultations and even to receive emotional support. The advanced technologies such as AI are being used to understand complex problems hence paving way for more robust and acceptable system compatible with accepted norms. As the use of these technologies will grow, it will uplift health systems around the world facing problems of inadequate budget, under staff etc., hence bringing us closer to our shared goal of universal health care. Apart from exposing flaws within globalization, COVID-19 also presented new opportunities that can create room for effective international cooperation and taking measures can set perfect examples for robust internationalism. Once such opportunity was presented in form of world going digital. During covid-19, the digital world realized to be a great strength for world financial system as majority of the businesses having digital infrastructure continued their routine work through digital domains and meanwhile other businesses having capacity to go digital were digitalized. Big meeting from political nature to economic nature were conducted through software such as Zoom and Microsoft teams. This showed how these digital system can be efficient even in the times of crises but at the same such high activity highlights the risk of hacking and theft in cyber world. Cybercrimes have increased in last one year and there exists question of what if these system get hacked by non-state or state actors for political gains? Such flaw offers an opportunity for world consensus to devise cyber laws applicable for all and hence shared concern can foster cooperation and multilateralism, as sharing of ideas and capacities can help achieve the shared goal of a safer cyber world. Internationalism is the only best way forward to the problem world is facing today. We must not let pandemic become the new excuse for nationalism, isolationism, anti-immigration policies, and institutionalized racism. Institutions need to be empowered and globalization must be perfected to achieve the common goal of universal human rights. It must not matter who creates the vaccine first or which state takes the lead, rather information needs to be shared and research teams of developed and developing countries must joined together to end the ongoing state of chaos. The world is looking at great powers for their leadership and now is the time to work together for a better world tomorrow, as shared issues require shared responsibility. The author is an academician and founder of social enterprise named “Nigah”. He tweets at @iamawaiss