Daily Times

The Coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to a standstill and the activities of global institutions to a grinding halt. States across the globe have closed their borders to protect themselves from the contagious virus, which has taken thousands of lives and has severely affected hundreds of thousands of people. The raging contagion has conspicuously exposed the world’s uneasiness to cope with the global health crisis. The international institutions, which claim to be the harbingers of global security and regulators of globalisation, have miserably failed to caution about the coming catastrophe. Currently, not only the developing world but also the developed countries are on their knees before the unforgiving virus. Nations are compelled to do self-help despite being members of the powerful regional and international organisations. The containment measures taken so far have virtually isolated countries from one another. Big Powers, like the US, China, the UK and France, have been adapting unidentical strategies to cope with the contagion but are failing miserably despite world-class state-of-the-art health infrastructure. Undoubtedly, globalisation has a big hand in the spread of the disease all across the world.

Therefore, one thing is certain that if the crisis persists for long, drastic changes are going to occur in the established principles of globalisation.

The novel Coronavirus belongs to the corona family, which is harmful among animals and was previously regarded as unharmful to humans. This new member of the already existing family was first discovered in Wuhan, a city of Hubei Province of China. Soon after its discovery, the city became an epicentre of the disease. This compelled the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare the crisis as a pandemic. Highly contagious nature of the virus globalised the spread within no time. So far, the confirmed cases have crossed the grim milestone of three million along with the death toll being as high as 225 thousand. While a flattened curve is far from seen, currently, the world seems to be at the mercy of COVID-19. The socio-economic activities are stagnant while unemployment and frustration among people are soaring high.

The Killer Virus has brought the global health infrastructure to its knees. The most developed nations are facing a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).

The free democracies of Western Europe are not free to allow freedom of movement and socioeconomic activities

Ironically, the world was all set to face the WW-III with a supply of mass destructive material while the microbe came out of nowhere. It has badly exposed the readiness of the global powers to face the health crisis of the COVID-19 magnitude. Until now, the virus is battering the world, especially the modernised western democracies, despite world-class health system.

The international and regional institutions, especially the WHO and the European Union (EU), played a disappointing role in this pandemic crisis. American president, Donald Trump, has severely criticised the WHO for its failure to report the pandemic on time. He blamed the institution for developing a nexus with Chinese authorities to suppress the gravity of an otherwise dangerous situation. In a coercive move, Trump administration also suspended the economic assistance to the institution. Similarly, the EU has also been heavily lampooned by Spain and Italy-the two worse hit countries in Europe for its lacklustre performance in the wake of this pandemic. The chaotic situation has compelled the highly integrated European countries to act in isolation to contain the virus. The free democracies of Western Europe are not free to allow freedom of movement and socioeconomic activities. The global institution seems incongruous to the national response of the nation-states to contain the contagion.

The global response to the pandemic varies from nation to nation, For instance, Germany adopted a vigorous testing and tracing approach. Britain, first vacillating on complete shutdown, went for herd immunity acquirement, which backfired and the death toll in the UK surged to second highest in Europe. The United States of America, seduced by its creation manifesto, is oscillating between maintaining a complete lockdown and allowing the freedom of the individual to decide their fate. In this entire scenario, the authoritarian regimes of the Gulf and China have emerged successful in stopping the spread of this virus. By implementation of draconian laws, these states have set a new paradigm for those looking for an alternative to democracy to deal with the 21st-century challenges. In short, the highly integrated world is in complete disparity to devise a common approach against a common threat.

Global economies are facing devastating impacts due to stagnant economic activities. It has been estimated that the contagious disease cost 5.5 trillion dollars to the global economy. Germany referred to it as the worst crisis since WW-II, while America is referring to the impacts to be more severe than the recession caused by the 2008 global financial crisis. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), more than 1.6 billion people are expected to lose their livelihoods due to this contagion. The gravity of the crisis can be gauged from the fact that for the first time in history, the prices of the crude oil declined below zero dollars in the US. Undoubtedly, this pandemic is exposing the flaws in the existing global economic system as global aviation, manufacturing, hoteling, tourism and many other industries have suddenly been brought down to halt by a microbe. As the catastrophe is unfolding, much more is yet to come in term of the future of globalisation.

The Chinese model of authoritarianism has proved successful so far against the contagious virus. The constrictive lockdown imposed by the country halted the spread within weeks. Additionally, the construction of thousand-bedded hospital within ten days in the wake of the crisis is setting a new precedent for the world. Although the free world is unlikely to adopt the Chinese model, China has presented a new strategy to cope with the crisis. China has demonstrated the “Whole of the Government” approach, which is missing in other parts of the free world. China’s successful strategy has provided a new lifeline to the authoritarian regime to legitimise draconian laws and tactics.

Similarly, the crisis has compelled nations to rely on their resources rather than looking for aid and assistance. Though the statism has already been prevailing in the global affairs with a rise of populism, now this pandemic has endorsed it even greater. The absence of symmetry in actions taken by the global leaders of the liberal world along with their fragile condition is causing chaos on a global level. The absence of global leadership is even more evident in these testing times. The United States, which is gradually backing from its global responsibilities since Trump’s inception in Oval offices, now seems engulfed by the crisis. It is no more an ideal to deal with the crisis of COVID-19 magnitude as Americans are the top affectees of the disease.

Capitalism-based liberal economic order is facing gut-wrenching sight in the wake of the pandemic. Not only its blind followers, but even the designers of the global liberal economic order are suffering badly. Sooner or later, the pandemic will eventually be controlled, but it will leave an indelible question mark on the extent of the effectiveness of the current capitalistic economic model. It is too early to conclude whether the world will look for alternatives to capitalism, but deliberations are required as the contemporary model does not suffice the modern challenges.

Trump’s America is entangled in the crisis. It is no longer a model to be followed in the containment process.

Whereas, China, after successful overcoming of the crisis, is now reaching all across the globe with medical aid and assistance. The country presented a success story in the fight against the egregious virus thus; a model to follow has a degree of influence over struggling states. Even before the emergence of the crisis, the Chinese have been enjoying economic influence across the globe through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Being a paradigm of success on economic and security front, the country has sufficient potential to cause geostrategic power shift, at least to the extent of global east.

Climate change is another possible pandemic looming across the horizon. COVID-19 crisis can act as an eye-opener for the global powers to take swift actions against the future catastrophes. Unlike the current emergency, the climate devastation may persist for a much longer duration and can even become irreversible if the world remained irresolute in the containing actions. Similarly, there have been limited global monitoring protocols on biotech based research programmes. Amid the contagion, reports have been emerging about the possibility of virus transfer into humans in the Wuhan institute of virology, a research institute located in the first epicentre of the disease. The present scenario needs global powers to gather under in roof and deliberate over the possible causes and solutions.

Covid-19 has conspicuously demonstrated the need for improving the existing global system. Unethical corporate behaviours for profiteering are proving costly for human beings. The unbridled corporate greed is not only responsible for the current sufferings but also the progeny of other social evils. It has a major burden on air pollution, water pollution, unemployment, low wages, social disparities, global warming, climate change and other new emerging crisis. The world must unite for an inclusive structure, which should be based on care, cooperation and equality. International stakeholders need to revisit their priorities. This is high time to decide what kind of future they want to decide for the coming generations.

Similarly, unchecked industrialisation, exploitation of natural laws and ecosystem for corporate greed and increasing competition for materialistic progress in the shape of trade wars are wise things to do? COVID-19, SARS and EBOLA Virus have demonstrated the imperatives of remaining in the limit. Any clash with nature may backfire and the cost will exceed the pleasure in gigantic amount.

Restructuring of Global institutions is important to make them more efficient and proactive. WHO’s failure to restrict the Coronavirus to China has shown a dire need of changes in the working mechanism of the institution. Similarly, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Bretton woods institution, G-7 and G-20 have failed to meet the expectation of the developing world. The United States has already backed off from its international obligations. In such circumstances, if the belief in those institutions is not restored through prudent leadership and actions, the world may suffer even more via belief crisis. Developing world in such chaotic times is facing both existential and economic crisis. If a liberal capitalistic system fails to deliver, these countries may look for better alternatives. Thus, it is important to improve the working mechanisms of these global institutions to restore perished belief in the global system.

To conclude, the world is standing on a crossroad. Now, it has to trade-off between erratically emerging global crisis and replacing the existing global structure with an improved one. Undoubtedly, globalisation has endorsed corporate greed, unbridle profiteering, clash with nature, unequal distribution of wealth and cruel social stratification. Only s system of cooperation, care for natural laws and equitable distribution of wealth can guarantee a promising future for the world.

The writer is a doctor and a civil servant. He is currently serving as Assistant Commissioner (UT) and is a gold medalist in International Relations (IR). He is also a Visiting Faculty member at the Civil Officers Academy