Publication Year: within 25 Years / Topic: Health Crisis

1. The First COVID Wave: Comparing Experiences of Adults Age 50 and Older in the U.S. and Europe

Author:: Thomas Barnay and Eric Defebvre
Publication Date:: 04-2023
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Commonwealth Fund
Abstract:: Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the United States remains one of the hardest-hit countries, with more than 1 million confirmed coronavirus deaths, of which more than 91 percent involved people 50 years and older.1 Beyond causing this enormous loss of life, the pandemic has had other significant adverse consequences, including hospitalizations, job loss, and delayed care for millions of Americans. In this brief, we examine how U.S. adults age 50 and older fared during the first wave of the pandemic in the summer of 2020, compared with their peers in European countries.
Topic:: Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

2. A return to grace for nuclear power in European public opinion? Some elements of a rapid paradigm shift

Author:: Mathieu Brugidou and Jérémy Bouillet
Publication Date:: 03-2023
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Robert Schuman Foundation (RSF)
Abstract:: The health crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, and perhaps above all the war in Ukraine, together with increasingly outspoken Chinese and/or American interventionism, have largely contributed to "breaking European energy taboos"[1] towards more collective and coordinated approaches. This is undeniable in the field of energy: if certain mechanisms such as the general cap on gas prices have not been adopted, some measures, which were hard to imagine at European level until recently, have now been ratified, such as joint gas purchases, shared objectives for reducing energy demand, the obligation to store energy, etc.
Topic:: Public Opinion, Nuclear Power, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Russia-Ukraine War
Political Geography:: Europe

3. Warnings and Welcomes: China’s Reopening and the Politics of International Travel

Author:: John Van Oudenaren
Publication Date:: 01-2023
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: China Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: Over the past two months, as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has rapidly rolled back its strict zero-COVID epidemic prevention policy, COVID-19 has spread rapidly throughout the country. The combination of the PRC reopening its borders to outbound travel on January 8 and the ongoing pandemic has put countries that are major travel destinations for Chinese nationals in a bind. Governments have responded differently to the situation, with some imposing testing and quarantine requirements and others declining to do so. In China, official and social media have generally lauded countries that have desisted from testing requirements and opened their doors to Chinese tourists. Thailand, in particular, has been widely celebrated. Not only did Thailand decline to impose testing requirements on inbound travelers from the PRC, but several senior Thai government ministers went to the airport to welcome the first planeload of Chinese tourists following the lifting of travel restrictions on January 8 (Guangming Daily, January 17). Scenes of smiling Thai officials and airport workers greeting the first group of arriving tourists circulated widely in Chinese media.
Topic:: Politics, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Travel
Political Geography:: China and Asia

4. The impacts of the pandemic on investment flows in BRICS countries: a preliminary analysis based on UNCTAD global investment reports

Author:: Ana Garcia, Rafaela Mello, Victor Fernandes, Maria Eduarda Lopes, João Carmino, and Felipe Queiroz
Publication Date:: 10-2022
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: BRICS Policy Center
Abstract:: In 2020, with the advent of the pandemic, the lockdown and social isolation actions implemented by governments in order to contain the contagion of the virus had an impact on the economies, reducing the speed of execution of existing investment projects and hindering the prospect of new ones. In this sense, the flow of direct investments around the world fell by 35% in 2020, reaching US$ 1 trillion, compared to US$ 1.5 trillion in the previous year, according to UNCTAD. Based on this observation, the present research aims to understand the main trends around the investment flow related to the BRICS countries, in order to assess how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the dynamics of investments in the world, and especially, in emerging economies. To this end, the reports produced by UNCTAD from 2019 to 2022 regarding global investment flows were analyzed, in order to understand how the scenario was before the pandemic and what dynamics were underway before the health crisis, but it also allowed to understand what transformations occurred with the course of the pandemic, in addition to signaling paths and trends for the future.
Topic:: Economy, Investment, COVID-19, BRICS, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Russia, China, India, South Africa, and Brazil

5. Prospects for agriculture in the new European context: the French example

Author:: Bernard Bourget
Publication Date:: 06-2022
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Robert Schuman Foundation (RSF)
Abstract:: The health crisis and the subsequent invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army has revealed the EU's dependence on agriculture and food, as well as in other strategic sectors such as energy[1]. Can French agriculture seize the opportunities offered by the new situation resulting from these major events to give it new life? As the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union enters its final month, this is an opportunity to take stock of the situation and prospects for French agriculture before the implementation of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2023 and the objectives of the European Commission's Green Deal.
Topic:: Agriculture, European Union, Health Crisis, Green Deal, and Russia-Ukraine War
Political Geography:: Europe and France

6. Delay, Detect, Defend: Preparing for a Future in which Thousands Can Release New Pandemics

Author:: Kevin M. Esvelt
Publication Date:: 11-2022
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The world is demonstrably vulnerable to the introduction of a single pandemic virus with a comparatively low case fatality rate. The deliberate and simultaneous release of many pandemic viruses across travel hubs could threaten the stability of civilisation. Current trends suggest that within a decade, tens of thousands of skilled individuals will be able to access the information required for them to single-handedly cause new pandemics. Safeguarding civilisation from the catastrophic misuse of biotechnology requires delaying the development and misuse of pandemic-class agents while building systems capable of reliably detecting threats and preventing nearly all infections.
Topic:: Security, Public Health, Pandemic, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

7. Transforming Health Crises with Pandemic Therapies Image

Author:: Katherine E. Bliss and J. Stephen Morrison
Publication Date:: 11-2022
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:: The CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security convened a working group on Covid-19 therapies in the fall of 2021 to develop policy recommendations aimed at strengthening U.S. leadership and global action to ensure development of, access to, and uptake of Covid-19 therapies worldwide. Drawing on insights gleaned through private meetings and roundtable discussions with pharmaceutical manufacturers, government officials, representatives of multilateral organizations, and nongovernmental organizations, and building on points raised in an interim report published in July 2022.
Topic:: Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

8. Extraordinary Legal Measures and Their Application as a Response of States to the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author:: Boguslaw Stanislaw Przywora and Karol Dobrzeniecki
Publication Date:: 03-2022
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:: Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:: The topic of the present article is the response of states to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic by using extraordinary legal measures provided for in their constitutions and legislation. By reference to the research project's findings, the authors characterise the legal solutions in selected jurisdictions and attempt to demonstrate the relationship between the application of emergency measures and the specific political system of states. By doing so, the authors consider such factors as the territory, population, or type of political regime.
Topic:: Governance, Pandemic, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:: Global Focus

9. How Has the Coronavirus Affected Polish Criminal Law?

Author:: Weronika Stawinska
Publication Date:: 06-2022
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:: Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:: This paper aims to indicate the changes in Polish criminal law introduced in the COVID-19 acts. The text identifies the new regulations of most importance to society. For this reason, the initial focus is on the issue of suspension of procedural time limits and some substantive law time limits from the Criminal Code. It must be stated that, from the perspective of the legal certainty principle, precisely these provisions are of the most significant importance for the defendant. Next, the changes in the Electronic tagging concerning the possibility of interrupting the execution of an imprisonment sentence and serving an imprisonment sentence were discussed. From a criminal policy point of view, higher penalties for the offences of exposure to infection and stalking should also have been mentioned. A new offence of particularly aggravated theft has appeared in the Penal Code and a new offence of obstructing a Police or Border Guard officer in performing official duties. For a more effective fight, it is also vital to provide for the possibility of imposing a new preventive measure and confiscating objects important to public health. The indicated legal developments are presented in the context of human rights protection and in light of recent literature and judicial decisions.
Topic:: Law Enforcement, Law, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe and Poland

10. A Bitter Winter: Omicron Tests the Limits of China’s Zero-COVID Approach

Author:: John Van Oudenaren
Publication Date:: 01-2022
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: China Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has sought to achieve a “zero-infection” (零感染,ling ganran) rate among its population. The Chinese government has pursued this objective through the “dynamic clearance” (动态清零, dongtai qing ling) policy, which is predicated on keeping China’s international borders largely closed, and rapidly detecting, isolating, and eliminating domestic outbreaks (People’s Daily, January 7). Dynamic clearance relies on digital monitoring, mass testing, and controlling population movement to achieve early detection and reduce of COVID-19 transmission. Responses to even single-digit case clusters include mandatory lockdowns, and centralized quarantines in government health centers for potentially infected or exposed groups (Xinhua, August 19, 2021).
Topic:: Crisis Management, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Zero-COVID
Political Geography:: China and Asia

11. Analysis of the Short-Term and Long-Term Impacts of the Coronavirus Crisis on International Climate Policyt

Author:: Zehra Askinsena Ilkilic and Manuel Andreas Knoll
Publication Date:: 06-2022
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Alternative Politics
Institution:: Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:: The coronavirus pandemic has caused far-reaching precautionary measures around the world. Governments’ attempts to get the coronavirus under control have led to the negligence of other important policy areas. Climate policy in particular has been significantly influenced and lost importance on the political agendas of states after the outbreak. Over time, the coronavirus will either disappear or lose its initial impact due to medical measures. Two years after the outbreak of the coronavirus, this paper aims to analyse and evaluate the short-term and long-term impacts of the coronavirus crisis on international climate policy. It is important to analyse how it has shaped international climate policy and what lessons can be learned for dealing with climate change. The analysis is based on the principles and regular functioning of the International Climate Change Regime.
Topic:: Climate Change, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

12. State Building in Crisis Governance: Donald Trump and COVID-19

Author:: Nicholas F. Jacobs, Desmond King, and Sidney M. Milkis
Publication Date:: 07-2022
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Political Science Quarterly
Institution:: Academy of Political Science
Abstract:: Nicholas F. Jacobs, Desmond King, and Sidney M. Milkis look at the final year of the Donald Trump presidency, and the administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They argue that Trump’s actions fit a rationale, partisan strategy endemic to executive-centered partisanship. Consequently, Trump and the Republican Party failed to suffer the repudiation that punished previous presidents when adjudged failed crisis leaders.
Topic:: Governance, Political Science, Crisis Management, Donald Trump, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Republican Party
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

13. The Psychological Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the U.S. Military

Author:: Timothy Berger
Publication Date:: 03-2022
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Advanced Military Studies
Institution:: Marine Corps University Press, National Defense University
Abstract:: The U.S. government and Department of Defense (DOD) have plans to counter a pandemic and return the country to normal while reducing the impacts of the disease. These plans address psychological health, but only in a limited manner. The U.S. government and DOD’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been primarily focused on containing the virus and reducing the number of deaths and damage to the economy, with very limited attention paid to the mental health impacts in both the population and military. Historical cases suggest that the psychological impacts can be wide-ranging and enduring if not treated properly and the country does not recover from the pandemic in a deliberate fashion. While some emerging research could suggest this for the U.S. population and military, researchers have not conducted specific studies into this particular field. Therefore, the U.S. military’s mental health could be degraded by the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigation measures and may be degraded for a significant period of time, reducing its readiness and ability to aid in the government’s response to the pandemic.
Topic:: Mental Health, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

14. Operation Warp Speed and the Countermeasures Acceleration Group—A Twenty-first Century Manhattan Project

Author:: John E. Hall and Nathan Packard
Publication Date:: 03-2022
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Advanced Military Studies
Institution:: Marine Corps University Press, National Defense University
Abstract:: On 15 May 2020, Operation Warp Speed, later renamed the HHS-DOD COVID-19 Countermeasures Acceleration Group (CAG), was a collaboration between the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense (DOD), and the private sector to accelerate development, production, and distribution of effective vaccines and therapeutics to counter COVID-19 for the American people. The CAG was the nucleus of the “whole-of-America” effort to defeat COVID-19, and DOD’s contribution was essential to the success of the CAG. This article highlights the contributions made by DOD, with a focus on innovative solutions and best practices that might apply to other DOD activities.
Topic:: Crisis Management, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

15. Past Economic Decline Predicts Opioid Prescription Rates

Author:: Herb Susmann, Elias Nosrati, Michael Ash, Michael Marmot, and Lawrence King
Publication Date:: 12-2022
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
Abstract:: America is in undergoing an epidemic of opioid related deaths. Analysts have emphasized two different (but not mutually exclusive) arguments. Supply based explanations emphasize the immoral activity of pharmaceutical companies from 1996 to aggressively market opioids. They typically use prescription rates as a measure of this variable. Demand based explanations emphasize the demand for opioids caused by economic hardship. This paper demonstrates that prescription rates are not entirely exogenous. We show that the decline of average household income from 1979 to 1989 at the county level is a significant predictor of opioid prescription rates in 2010. This is consistent with research that shows that childhood trauma predicts adult drug abuse. The policy implications of this finding are that an adequate response to the opioid epidemic must address economic dislocation and insecurity.
Topic:: Political Economy, Health Crisis, Pharmaceuticals, Opioid Crisis, and Income
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

16. Social Protection Reforms in the MENA Region: Possibilities and Challenges

Author:: Abdalhadi Alijla
Publication Date:: 05-2022
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: IEMed/EuroMeSCo
Abstract:: The COVID-19 crisis that hit the world in 2020 revealed a huge gap in access to public services, equality and government responsiveness to the consequences of the pandemic. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the COVID-19 crisis showed the inadequacy of the public institutions and their abilities to protect the poor, and ensure that populations’ needs are met, especially informal workers, women, children and the elderly. The social protection systems in the MENA countries are relatively weak, facing challenges or disfunctions through many ad-hoc programmes, making it difficult to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. This is particularly observed in countries facing a pre- COVID-19 economic crisis, such as Lebanon. There is clear evidence that social protection systems have a positive impact on the lives of the population in times of crisis. They improve access to health and education, and increase economic security. Social protection systems work during times of crisis and times of stability, but they are strategic tools that show that states have the capacity to design and deploy policy tools to protect people. In divided societies, inequalities are usually wider and, therefore, a comprehensive social protection system with a high rate of coverage is needed. In this Policy Study, we present four chapters, examining the state-of-the-art of social protection systems in the MENA region, challenges, and potential opportunities that government, local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and the European Union (EU) could take to assist in establishing comprehensive social protection systems. The COVID-19 crisis is an opportunity to learn and identify where the gaps are and what needs to be done by formal and informal institutions in the MENA region to reform and re-engineer their social protection systems with help from the EU and its institutions. COVID-19 arrived in the MENA region during an economic crisis in Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia, marked by huge inequalities, vulnerabilities with increasing poverty and low trust in governments and their performance. Lockdown, closure and physical distancing have also led to loss of jobs and income for millions of people, mainly informal workers, and businesses. The vulnerable groups who are already living in economic distress, such as informal workers, youth, women and the elderly, are the most affected parts of the population. They are the most vulnerable to loss of income and unemployment. This study highlights that MENA states lack comprehensive and effective social protection systems. In many MENA countries, ad-hoc programmes substitute a comprehensive social protection system. The study examines the rural-urban and socioeconomic group gaps in accessing services, such as health and education, and economic opportunities. It shows that the historic gap between urban-rural and socioeconomic groups' ability to access the same services and opportunities compared to other groups affected the ability of those groups to cope with the pandemic, exposing them to more vulnerability. The study examines the policy response of the MENA governments to the pandemic, namely in Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco – four countries that have been particularly challenged by COVID-19. It identifies several gaps and op- portunities to develop the social protection system. The study examines cash- based programmes, access to public health, informal workers, women’s protection, digitalisation of social protection systems, and education, to some extent. It focuses on youth, women, the elderly, disabled persons and children as the most vulnerable groups in the region. It identifies that coordination between formal in- stitutions and INGOs needs to be formalised, informal workers need to be included in the social protection system, women and the elderly should be prioritised, and informal social protection mechanisms could be supported through livelihood activities, but is not seen as a major part of any social protection mechanism. It finally highlights the need for digitalisation of reformed social protection systems or strategies.
Topic:: Governance, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Africa, Middle East, North Africa, and MENA

17. A Package of Reforms for Financing Pandemic Preparedness and Response for the G7

Author:: Amanda Glassman and Eleni Smitham
Publication Date:: 06-2022
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: COVID-19 has shown the detrimental consequences of insufficient and fragmented financing for outbreak preparedness, prevention, and response (PPR). As the world seeks to recover from the current COVID-19 pandemic, and to mitigate recovery needs for future health crises, more must be done to accelerate global efforts to ensure rapid, adequate funding and governance for global health security, which has been under-resourced and under-prioritized. The rationale for reforming and replenishing the global health architecture to prepare for the next pandemic is clear: to protect health, human lives, and economic well-being.[1] Without dedicated and accelerated investment—in scaled up surveillance, strengthened national health systems, enhanced research and development of medical countermeasures, and more—we will continue to face more frequent and more complex epidemics and pandemics in the years ahead, and be less prepared to stop them.[2] Without the capacity to surge financing to respond at-scale to infectious disease outbreaks, we risk a repeat of the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last July, the High-Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, mandated by the Italian Presidency of the G20, released the report A Global Deal for Our Pandemic Age, laying out policies and investments needed to reduce vulnerabilities to future pandemics.[3] Likewise, in 2021, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response[4] described the shortcomings of the existing architecture and suggested similar policies for the future, including greater assessed contributions for the World Health Organization (WHO) and the need for dedicated financing to prevent and prepare for the next COVID-19 variant and pandemic risk. The Global Preparedness and Monitoring Board’s periodic reports went in this same direction[5] , as did earlier assessments following Ebola, SARS and MERS outbreaks though recommendations often went without implementation.[6] These reports and the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic itself have again made clear that existing mechanisms for financing pandemic preparedness and response are not fit-for-purpose, nor at the sufficient speed and scale needed to ensure global health security. Current financing for pandemic preparedness is small, fragmented, and concentrated in the health sector.[7] Different organizations across the global health and international financial institution architecture hold different comparative advantages in mobilizing and deploying monies and need to be fully financed to do what they are best suited to do. However, no institution (that is adequately funded, credible, and capable) is currently mandated to or accountable for ensuring pandemic preparedness, resulting in financing and accountability gaps, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where Global Health Security Action Plans too often go un-costed and unfunded.[8] Further, new regional organizations and groupings are leaders in their own development, and must be a central part of a new global health security architecture—the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Forum for the Progress and Development of South America (PROSUR), among others, are examples. Adequate reforms and robust replenishments of global health organizations new and old are needed to ensure stronger global health security and pandemic preparedness now and in the future. External funders should take a comprehensive view of the major global health initiatives and consider how a range of reforms, when combined, have the potential to respond more coherently and efficiently to the financing demands related to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, other macro risks that affect public spending on health, and in the face of future health threats. There are reasons for optimism. Unlike the experience during previous pandemic threats, COVID-19 has finally seen the International Monetary Fund become more aware and vocal on the need to address both COVID-19 and future pandemic risks as “systemic risk(s) to the global economy, not just the development […] of a particular country.”[9] Finance, health and development policymakers are increasingly coming together in different fora and recognizing the need to invest across sectors and to connect the international financial architecture with health initiatives in ways that will deliver better outcomes.[10]
Topic:: Reform, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

18. From emergency to structure: ways to fight Covid-19 via international cooperation in health from Brazil

Author:: Andemar Pozzatti and Luiza Witzel Farias
Publication Date:: 03-2022
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI)
Institution:: Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (IBRI)
Abstract:: This article argues the need for complementarity between emergency and structuring international cooperation in scenarios of health crises in developing countries. Through a review of contemporary literature and document analysis, it analyzes some aspects of the performance of global and Latin American institutions in the Covid-19 pandemic in light of this argument. It also makes a brief survey of forms of international cooperation that emerge from Brazil, with BRICS and Latin American partners, to fight the pandemic, which have a local and sectoral character: paradiplomacy, structuring networks and the role of local agents and health experts.
Topic:: International Cooperation, Public Health, Humanitarian Crisis, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Brazil and South America

19. South Korea's Public Diplomacy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Seeking Status as an Authority in Global Governance

Author:: Kadir Ayhan
Publication Date:: 01-2022
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:: The COVID-19 pandemic caught almost all countries unprepared. Some countries, including South Korea (hereafter Korea), managed to deal with the pandemic relatively more successfully than others and had a proactive global posture from early on, including providing aid, and public diplomacy campaigns. In this paper, I explore Korea’s COVID-19-related public diplomacy activities and its aims. I analyze Korea’s COVID-19 humanitarian aid trends, its policy documents, and the tweets related to the pandemic posted by the country’s official public diplomacy account. I find that the pandemic catalyzed what Korea had already been aiming to do, which is improve its global status to be among top authorities across various issue-areas. Due to the nature of the pandemic, Korea’s public diplomacy has been themed around international cooperation and solidarity. I suggest that Korea should hold onto its international cooperation emphasis on public diplomacy, to form the basis for its status-seeking as an authority in global governance in the post-pandemic era.
Topic:: International Relations, Diplomacy, Domestic Policy, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Asia, South Korea, and Global Focus

20. Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: Reflections on Historical and Psychological Dimensions

Publication Date:: 04-2022
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: The Harriman Institute
Abstract:: Mariam Antadze will discuss the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and its mental health and psychosocial implications on communities. Focusing on how war affects mental health and psychosocial development facilitates a better understanding of trauma experienced by people who are directly or indirectly affected. Among the topics Antadze will discuss: Russia's post-Soviet invasions chronologically; what we have learned from Russia's war in Georgia; understanding how sociopolitical and psychological factors interact in war trauma; psycho- and mental health needs that arise from war; and justice as a healing factor.
Topic:: Defense Policy, Military Strategy, Mental Health, Health Crisis, and Russia-Ukraine War
Political Geography:: Europe and Ukraine

21. Chinese COVID-19 Misinformation A Year Later

Author:: Elizabeth Chen
Publication Date:: 02-2021
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: On January 28, members of an international team led by the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded fourteen days of quarantine and began field work in Wuhan, China for a mission aimed at investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of the time of writing, the team had made visits to the Hubei Center for Disease Control and Prevention; the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. State media also reported that the WHO team visited “an exhibition featuring Chinese people fighting the epidemic,” raising concerns that the trip could prove to be little more than a public relations move even as the origins of the coronavirus remain heavily politicized and uncertain (Global Times, January 31). Foreign experts have worried about whether the WHO investigation will be sufficiently transparent or if investigators will be allowed adequate access to key locations and scientific data (SCMP, January 27). Apart from a “terms of reference” report and a list of WHO members released in November, further details on the WHO team’s trip have not been released.
Topic:: World Health Organization, COVID-19, Misinformation, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: China and Asia

22. International Society and Its Institutions in Refugee Protection during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Revisiting the Solidarism/Pluralism Debate in English School

Author:: Nihal Eminoglu, K. Onur Unutulmaz, and M. Gokay Ozerim
Publication Date:: 01-2021
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:: This study aims at discussing the vulnerability of the Global Refugee Protection Regime (GRPR) during crises by applying the ‘international society’ concept within the English School of International Relations theory to the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze the efficiency of the international society institutions on GRPR through the policies and practices of states as well as organizations such as the United Nations, European Union and Council of Europe. The GRPR has been selected because the ‘vulnerability’ of this regime has become a matter of academic and political debate as much as the vulnerability of those persons in need of international protection, specifically during times of crisis. Our analysis reveals that GRPR-centric practices and policies by the institutions of international society during the first four months afte
Topic:: Diplomacy, International Law, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

23. Lockdowns in ASEAN: Winning the Pandemic War

Author:: Jose M. L. Montesclaros
Publication Date:: 02-2021
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:: With vaccines not expected to fully roll out until 2024, lockdowns remain a critical priority to save lives today. February 2021 marks the end of a year of COVID-19, and the opportunity to re-visit and improve the way lockdowns are implemented in the year ahead.
Topic:: Pandemic, ASEAN, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Asia and Southeast Asia

24. Economic costs and benefits of accelerated COVID-19 vaccinations

Author:: Joseph E. Gagnon, Steve Kamin, and John Kearns
Publication Date:: 05-2021
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: COVID-19 vaccination programs are generally understood to be a prerequisite for a return to normalcy in our social and economic lives. Emergency measures to research, test, produce, and distribute vaccines have been expensive, but increases in GDP resulting from the vaccines are expected to exceed those costs by wide margins. Few studies have quantified the economic costs and benefits of different rates of COVID-19 vaccination, however. This Policy Brief focuses on developing such a quantitative assessment for the United States; the approach may be applied to other countries as well. Two illustrative scenarios support the conclusion that most plausible options to accelerate vaccinations would have economic benefits that far exceed their costs, in addition to their more important accomplishment of saving lives. This Policy Brief shows that if, for example, the United States had adopted a more aggressive policy in 2020 of unconditional contracts with vaccine producers, the up-front cost would have been higher but thousands of lives would have been saved and economic growth would have been stronger. Instead, the federal government conditioned its contracts on the vaccines’ being proven safe and effective. The projections presented in this analysis show that even if unconditional contracts led to support for vaccines that failed the phase III trial and ultimately were not used, the cost would have been worth it.
Topic:: Economics, Health, Crisis Management, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

25. 2020 Sudikoff Interdisciplinary Seminar on Genocide Prevention: Rapporteur's Report

Author:: Alex Vandermaas-Peeler
Publication Date:: 02-2021
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abstract:: On June 10, 2020, the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum brought together scholars, practitioners, and civil society representatives to discuss possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global risk of mass atrocities and efficacy of mass atrocity prevention. This seminar was the first in a series designed to stimulate new policy-relevant research and begin building a network of scholars and practitioners focused on global trends and their implications for mass atrocities and atrocity prevention. Future seminar series topics include the global distribution of power, new technologies, demographics, climate change, and resource competition, and norms and ideologies. This rapporteur’s report summarizes major observations raised during the workshop.
Topic:: Genocide, Risk, Atrocities, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Atrocity Prevention
Political Geography:: Global Focus

26. The Resurgence of Covid19 and its Impact on the Economies of CEMAC Countries

Author:: Cyriaque Junior Medjo Mekok
Publication Date:: 08-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:: For more than a year, the world has been facing a phenomenon that has literally redefined habits within communities. This phenomenon is the global Corona virus pandemic, identified in December 2019 in China, in the city of Wuhan. Declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it has multiplied cases of contamination and death throughout the world. As no country is self-sufficient, the Corona virus pandemic has forced all nations to adopt measures to protect their populations and territories. Since mid-January 2021, the WHO has authorised the release of Covid19 vaccines in the world in general and in Africa in particular. Astra Zeneca, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and others are now being used to combat the disease. Even if their effectiveness is established at 66% in general against 85% for the severe forms, their ineffectiveness against the more contagious South African variant represents a disadvantage for their marketing in Africa. In order to better understand our subject, we will take stock of the resurgence of this crisis in the economies of the CEMAC countries (I), state its harmful effects on their economies (II) and provide prospects and solutions for economic recovery (III).
Topic:: Economics, Regional Cooperation, Pandemic, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and CEMAC (Central African Economic and Monetary Community)
Political Geography:: Africa, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo

27. COVID-19 and Conservation: Crisis Response Strategies that Benefit People and Nature

Author:: Ina Lehmann, César Rodríguez Garavito, and Anna Spenceley
Publication Date:: 01-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Abstract:: The COVID-19 pandemic is a global human health crisis that is deeply intertwined with the global biodiversity crisis. It originated when a zoonotic virus spilled over from wild animals to humans. Viruses can spread easily in disturbed ecosystems, and with increasing contact between humans and wildlife the risk of contagion grows. Conservation is crucial to reduce the risks of future pandemics, but the current pandemic also impacts on conservation in many ways. In this Briefing Paper we suggest strategies to alleviate the pandemic’s adverse effects on conservation in the Global South. Many zoonoses originate there, and livelihoods are strongly dependent on natural resources. The paper considers the pandemic’s overarching economic implica-tions for protected and other conserved areas, and specific ramifications for the tourism and wildlife trade sectors, which are closely related to these areas. As economies shrink, natural resources come under pressure from various sides. Financial resources are reallocated from the conservation to the health sector, countries decrease environmental protection standards to boost economic recovery, and poor people in rural regions resort to protected wild resources as a subsistence strategy. Together, these trends speed up the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services and create supportive conditions for the emergence of zoonotic disease and the undermining of livelihoods.
Topic:: Environment, Natural Resources, Nature, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

28. Fragile States Index 2021 – Annual Report

Author:: Natalie Fiertz, Nate Haken, Patricia Taft, Emily Sample, and Wendy Wilson
Publication Date:: 05-2021
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Fund for Peace
Abstract:: The Fragile States Index, produced by The Fund for Peace, is a critical tool in highlighting not only the normal pressures that all states experience, but also in identifying when those pressures are pushing a state towards the brink of failure. By highlighting pertinent issues in weak and failing states, The Fragile States Index—and the social science framework and software application upon which it is built—makes political risk assessment and early warning of conflict accessible to policy-makers and the public at large.
Topic:: Climate Change, Authoritarianism, Employment, Fragile States, Economy, Political stability, Conflict, Crisis Management, Peace, Resilience, COVID-19, Health Crisis, Early Warning, and Risk Assessment
Political Geography:: Africa, Europe, Middle East, Tajikistan, Germany, Armenia, Central America, Spain, Lebanon, Timor-Leste, North America, Ethiopia, Southeast Asia, El Salvador, Global Focus, and United States of America

29. Meeting the Global Health Challenge to Reduce Death and Disability from Alcohol, Tobacco, and Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption with Corrective Taxes

Author:: Chris Lane and Vinayak Bhardwaj
Publication Date:: 11-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: Behind the daily trauma of COVID-19 lies a larger and longer-lasting global health challenge resulting from the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Using a sample of 25 large advanced and emerging market economies accounting for three-quarters of global GDP, we show that about 60 million productive life years were lost every year in 2000, 2010, and 2019 from death and disability attributable to alcohol, tobacco, and diets high in sugar-sweetened beverages. Using the cost-of-illness framework, the economic value of these lost productive years in 2019 is approximately $2.1 trillion in our country sample (in 2017 purchasing power parity dollars [PPP$]). We show that over a 20-year period, a higher tax effort is associated with larger reductions in economic costs. We also show that total corrective taxes for all the products under investigation fall far short of the indirect costs of consumption in all countries. We conclude that all advanced economies and emerging markets could reap substantial macroeconomic benefits from better health by raising corrective taxes on alcohol and tobacco and by introducing corrective taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.
Topic:: Health, Disability, Tax Systems, Health Crisis, and Addiction
Political Geography:: Global Focus

30. Addressing the COVID-19 Crisis’s Indirect Health Impacts for Women and Girls

Author:: Carleigh Krubiner, Megan O'Donnell, Julia Kaufman, and Shelby Bourgault
Publication Date:: 04-2021
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: As donor institutions and governments seek to provide relief and support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession, CGD’s COVID-19 Gender and Development Initiative aims to ensure that their policy and investment decisions equitably benefit women and girls. We seek to support decision-makers in understanding the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; assess health, economic, and social policy response measures with a gender lens; and propose evidence-based solutions for an inclusive recovery. Recognizing that the dialogue to date has largely emphasized challenges facing women and girls in high-income settings, our analysis centers on women and girls in low- and middle-income countries. In this policy brief, we summarize the findings of a CGD working paper, Addressing the COVID-19 Crisis’s Indirect Health Impacts for Women and Girls. We examine how the pandemic is affecting women’s and girl’s health, including their sexual and reproductive health; some of the ways national governments and donor institutions have sought to maintain the provision of essential health services; and existing gaps, opportunities, and promising strategies donors and governments should pursue to address indirect harms to women’s and girl’s health during and beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
Topic:: Health, Children, Women, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

31. Deadly Disparities in the time of COVID-19: How Public Policy Fails Black and Latinx Chicagoans

Author:: Cal Lee Garrett, Cynthia Brito, Ivan Arenas, Claire Laurier Decoteau, and Fructoso M. Basaldua Jr.
Publication Date:: 12-2021
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP), University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract:: In this report we center the lived experiences Black, Latinx, and white residents of three neighborhoods — Austin, Little Village, and Albany Park — in order to explore how the pandemic has impacted different communities in the city. Drawing on over 150 interviews with residents and policy makers, we find that while COVID-19 has been treated as a health crisis at the federal, state, and local levels and thus has been fought through a series of public health strategies, the residents we spoke to experienced it as a much broader crisis related to housing, jobs, childcare, schooling, and healthcare. The policy response to COVID-19 gave explicit attention to racial equity but, for a number of reasons we lay out, often fell short in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable. Longstanding structural inequities meant that low-income and working-class Chicagoans were more vulnerable both to the disease and to the impact of disease mitigation strategies (e.g., economic fallout of the shutdown).
Topic:: Minorities, Discrimination, Urban, Community, Health Crisis, and Equality
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

32. ACLED 2020: The Year in Review

Author:: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
Publication Date:: 03-2021
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
Abstract:: One year since the official start of the pandemic in March 2020, COVID-19 has killed more than two million people and brought at least half the earth’s population under lockdown (New York Times, 11 March 2021; New York Times, 3 April 2020). The health crisis has had major impacts on worldwide conflict and disorder patterns, contributing to an overall decrease in political violence levels last year even as it fueled an increase in demonstration activity. And while the pandemic’s effects have been global in scale, they have not been felt equally across conflict contexts: although violence declined on the aggregate level, it rose in nearly half the world’s countries. As vaccine distribution accelerates and countries relax public health restrictions, conflict levels are expected to increase throughout 2021(for more, see ACLED’s special report: Ten Conflicts to Worry About in 2021). Last year, ACLED expanded data collection to Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia, the United States, and all of Europe, achieving near global coverage. Our 2020 annual report reviews the past 12 months of data on political violence and demonstration activity around the world.
Topic:: Political Violence, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Demonstrations
Political Geography:: Global Focus

33. A National Emergency: How COVID-19 is Fueling Unrest in the US

Author:: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
Publication Date:: 03-2021
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
Abstract:: In March 2020, the Trump administration declared the novel coronavirus pandemic a national emergency in the United States. Although the US is home to just 4% of the world’s population, it now accounts for a quarter of all confirmed COVID-19 cases and a fifth of the death toll (New York Times, 2021). A year on, more than half a million people have died of COVID-19 across the country (CDC, 2021), and the new Biden administration has officially extended the national emergency beyond its March 2021 expiration date (CNBC, 25 February 2021). The health crisis has exacerbated existing inequalities and political faultlines in the US, contributing to a surge of unrest throughout the country. New analysis of ACLED data — now extended to the beginning of 2020 — reveals the full scope of the pandemic’s impact on American protest patterns for the first time.
Topic:: Domestic Politics, Pandemic, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Civil Unrest
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

34. A Climate Crisis in Africa: The Case of South Sudan

Author:: Nhial Tiitmamer
Publication Date:: 10-2021
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: The African continent will be the most severely affected by climate change. Within Africa, the least developed and politically unstable nations like South Sudan are likely to be the hardest hit. What can be done, and who should be at the forefront of these changes?
Topic:: Climate Change, Development, Environment, Infrastructure, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Africa and South Sudan

35. How COVID-19 medical supply shortages led to extraordinary trade and industrial policy

Author:: Chad P. Bown
Publication Date:: 07-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, a global shortage of hospital gowns, gloves, surgical masks, and respirators caused policymakers around the world to panic. This paper examines international trade in this personal protective equipment (PPE) during the crisis, with a focus on China, the European Union, and the United States. As the pandemic first hit, China increased imports and decreased exports of PPE, removing considerable quantities of supplies from global markets. For the European Union and United States, the decrease in their imports from China was not immediately replaced by increased trade from other foreign suppliers. Early shortages led to EU and US export controls on their own, domestically produced PPE and other extraordinary policy actions, including a US effort to reserve for itself supplies manufactured in China by a US-headquartered multinational. By April 2020 China’s exports had mostly resumed, and over the rest of the year its export volumes of some products surged, more than doubling compared to pre-pandemic levels. But China’s export prices also skyrocketed and remained elevated through 2020, reflecting severe and continued shortages. This paper documents these facts. It also explores these and other government actions, such as US trade war tariffs and the emergence of US industrial policy in the form of over $1 billion of subsidies to build out its domestic PPE supply chain, as well as potential lessons for future pandemic preparedness and international policy cooperation.
Topic:: Industrial Policy, Economy, Trade, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Supply
Political Geography:: Global Focus

36. How COVID-19 vaccine supply chains emerged in the midst of a pandemic

Author:: Chad P. Bown
Publication Date:: 08-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: Many months after COVID-19 vaccines were first authorized for public use, still limited supplies could only partially reduce the devastating loss of life and economic costs caused by the pandemic. Could additional vaccine doses have been manufactured more quickly some other way? Would alternative policy choices have made a difference? This paper provides a simple analytical framework through which to view the contours of the vaccine value chain. It then creates a new database that maps the COVID-19 vaccines of Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca/Oxford, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, and CureVac to the product- and location-specific manufacturing supply chains that emerged in 2020 and 2021. It describes the choppy process through which dozens of other companies at nearly 100 geographically distributed facilities came together to scale up global manufacturing. The paper catalogues major pandemic policy initiatives—such as the United States' Operation Warp Speed—that are likely to have affected the timing and formation of those vaccine supply chains. Given the data, a final section identifies further questions for researchers and policymakers.
Topic:: Vaccine, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Supply Chains
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

37. "Next Generation EU" Cities: Local Communities in a Post-Pandemic Future

Author:: Anna Lisa Boni and Tobia Zevi
Publication Date:: 12-2021
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI)
Abstract:: As the world enters a new year, the Covid-19 pandemic is still upsetting our daily lives. And as 75% of EU citizens live in urban areas, cities are the most prominent stage both for responding to the health crisis, and for seizing opportunities to recover and move forward. Meanwhile, in 2020, EU countries agreed to Next Generation EU, a €750 billion recovery package that represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. This report, produced in collaboration between ISPI and Eurocities, argues that cities should be given more say over how post-pandemic national recovery plans pan out between here and 2026, when all projects are supposed to be wrapping up. Indeed, the success of the EU recovery plans will hinge upon what cities do, or they don’t do over the next five years. How are cities rethinking their role within the “twin” green and digital transitions? How can they achieve gender parity, reduce inequalities, and preserve a vibrant cultural life?
Topic:: European Union, Cities, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Economic Recovery
Political Geography:: Europe

38. Impact Of Covid-19 On The Continuum Of Care

Author:: Wilfred Ngwa, Nkengafac Fobellah, Dr. Asahngwa Constantine, Mbuwir Charlotte, Kibu Odette, Gobina Ronald, and Denis Foretia
Publication Date:: 03-2021
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:: The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (widely referred to as COVID-19), caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first reported in Wuhan (Hubei province) China in December 2019. By January 30, 2020, WHO Director General declared that the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) [1]. The virus has since December 2019, spread to all the 7 continents of the world. The highest concentration of infected persons has shifted several times since mid-February 2020 from China to Iran, and then to Italy and Spain and is presently in the United States of America, India and Latin America and [3]. According to The Lancet, it is inevitable that Africa will be experiencing the next wave of infections [4]. Africa as of November 2nd, 2020, had registered more than 1.8 million cases and over 43 thousand deaths, thus contributing to about 3.9% of the global caseload and to about 3.6% of the global death roll [5].
Topic:: Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Global Health
Political Geography:: Africa and Cameroon

39. COVID-19 and its impact on Chile security and defense scenario/El COVID-19 y su impacto en el escenario de seguridad y defensa de Chile: Impacto nacional y regional

Author:: John Griffiths Spielman and Aldo Cassinelli Capurro
Publication Date:: 05-2021
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:: Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:: The COVID19 pandemic has hit Chile in the midst of a social outbreak, consequently, its impact and effect has also had a degree of politicization among the various political actors. Nonetheless, the health crisis has been skillfully managed by the current authorities, with Chile´s efforts being internationally prominent, both in obtaining supplies and in handling the crisis. The foregoing has presented risks, threats and also opportunities, which in the national case have been overcome thanks to the integration and effective coordination of the various state and non-state actors. In this, the participation of the armed forces has played a crucial role together with other organizations, in the search for solutions that in the case of Chile have allowed to adequately face the pandemic. Notwithstanding, at the regional level, cooperation efforts have not been adequately reflected since an individualistic and competitive attitude has prevailed, without prejudice to the existence of some specific actions or events of interstate solidarity./La pandemia COVID19 ha golpeado a Chile en pleno desarrollo de un estallido social, en consecuencia, su impacto y efecto también ha tenido un grado de politización entre los diversos actores políticos. Sin embargo, la crisis sanitaría ha sido hábilmente manejada por las actuales autoridades, siendo el esfuerzo de Chile destacado internacionalmente, tanto en la obtención de insumos, como en el manejo de la crisis. Lo anterior, ha presentado riesgos, amenazas y también oportunidades, que en el caso nacional se han podido sortear gracias a la integración y efectiva coordinación de los diversos actores estatales y no estatales. En ello, la participación de las fuerzas armadas (FFAAs) ha sido clave junto a otros organismos, para la búsqueda de soluciones que han permitido en el caso de Chile enfrentar adecuadamente la pandemia. Sin embargo, en el plano regional no se han podido plasmar adecuadamente los esfuerzos de cooperación ya que ha primado una actitud individualista y de competencia, sin perjuicio de existir algunas acciones o hechos específicos de solidaridad interestatal.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Regional Cooperation, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Latin America and Chile

40. Lockdown Fatigue: The Diminishing Effects of Quarantines on the Spread of COVID-19

Author:: Patricio Goldstein, Eduardo Levy-Yeyati, and Luca Sartorio
Publication Date:: 02-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:: Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) have been for most countries the key policy instrument utilized to contain the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of these policies on the virus’ transmission and death toll, for a panel of 152 countries, from the start of the pandemic through December 31, 2020. We find that lockdowns tend to significantly reduce the spread of the virus and the number of related deaths. We also show that this benign impact declines over time: after four months of strict lockdown, NPIs have a significantly weaker contribution in terms of their effect in reducing COVID-19 related fatalities. Part of the fading effect of quarantines could be attributed to an increasing non-compliance with mobility restrictions, as reflected in our estimates of a declining effect of lockdowns on measures of actual mobility. However, we additionally find that a reduction in de facto mobility also exhibits a diminishing effect on health outcomes, which suggests that lockdown fatigues may have introduced broader hurdles to containment policies.
Topic:: Crisis Management, Public Policy, Pandemic, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Lockdown Policies
Political Geography:: Global Focus

41. The Impact of Covid-19 and Conflict on Middle Eastern Economies

Author:: Paul Rivlin
Publication Date:: 01-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies
Abstract:: In our latest issue of Iqtisadi: Middle East Economy, Paul Rivlin assesses the economic damage caused by COVID-19 particularly in countries in the region experiencing the fallout of ongoing conflicts, and discusses several key trends that will continue to plague these hard-hit states. Ten years after the outbreak of the Arab Spring, war, low oil prices and COVID-19 are affecting the economic situation of the Middle East. Conflicts continue in Syria, Libya and Yemen, while Iraq and Lebanon suffer from the breakdown of government authority. The region appears to be less affected by COVID-19 than others, but that may be because data on infections and deaths is incomplete.
Topic:: Economy, Conflict, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Iraq, Middle East, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria

42. Mental Health and Psychosocial Support to Sustain Peace: Four Areas to Explore for Improving Practice

Author:: Paige Arthur and Céline Monnier
Publication Date:: 04-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:: After experimenting with months of lockdown and imposed social distancing measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, people everywhere now have a more immediate understanding of how prolonged crisis can create challenges for both individuals’ mental health as well as maintaining the social fabric of communities. However, social fragmentation and mental distress created by adverse environments are not new, nor are they limited to COVID-19. Gross social injustices or armed conflicts have provoked wide-spread mental suffering, broken down social norms, and undermined social cohesion since time immemorial. Generations grow up in the midst of violence, normalizing it, or losing capacity to trust others or their institutions. Hence, neglecting the psychosocial impacts of social injustices and violence on the individual and society undermines other efforts to build peaceful societies. Nevertheless, the use of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) approaches to build peace or prevent violent conflict remains anecdotal and ad hoc. This paper summarizes the existing arguments for why MHPSS should be more systematically used to sustain peace, and offers four opportunities to use MHPSS approaches in sustaining peace efforts at the UN: Support national capacities; Integrate MHPSS as a normal part of sustaining peace strategies; Increase expertise on MHPSS as part of sustaining peace; Creative partnerships to support an integrated approach.
Topic:: Mental Health, Peace, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

43. The Impact of COVID-19 on CSDP: Forging Opportunity out of Crisis?

Author:: Tobias Pietz
Publication Date:: 09-2021
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: When the Covid-19 pandemic began to sweep through the world in the early months of 2020, no country or international organisation had contingency plans in place to deal with a crisis that could occur anywhere and affect everybody simultaneously. In the case of the missions and operations deployed under the framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), Covid-19 had a severe impact, including on Brussels-based personnel and structures, early on. In hindsight, it is easy to criticise the first three months of crisis management at the CSDP structures in Brussels as well as what operations and missions did in the field. However, the unique and novel challenge of this pandemic must never be lost sight of in any assessment of CSDP performance. The pandemic and its effect on the CSDP revealed some crucial challenges faced by EU missions and their operational and planning structures. This Brief tries to shed light on the impact that Covid-19 has had on the CSDP and points to some lessons which can be drawn from the experiences of dealing with the pandemic crisis so far.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

44. Inequality, Lockdown, and COVID-19: Unequal Societies Struggle to Contain the Virus

Author:: Paul von Chamier
Publication Date:: 04-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:: There is nothing equal about COVID-19. It is now well established that poor and underprivileged social groups have absorbed most of the pandemic’s negative impact. However, the connection between COVID-19 and inequality might run even deeper. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, one additional point of the Gini coefficient correlated with a 1.34 percentage point higher rate of weekly new infections across countries. This difference in infection rates compounds like interest every week. This means that after twenty-one weeks of the pandemic, just one additional Gini å correlates with an approximately 1/3 higher overall number of cases in a country. More equal countries might enjoy an “equality dividend” that is associated with more shock resilience during the ongoing crisis. This new research from CIC sought to understand if pre-existing systemic inequities could be linked to higher COVID-19 infection rates, examining infection rates in 70 countries from mid-March 2020 through early August 2020, or what is widely seen as the first 21 weeks of the pandemic. It also studied these nations’ levels of inequality and other potential predictive variables: government efficiency (a measure indicating quality of public services and civil service capability), urban population share, share of the population over the age of 65, lockdown measures (calculated by stringency), and geographic mobility (a population’s physical movements as measured by Google’s COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports). The study tracked inequality by using the “Gini Coefficient,” a commonly used metric for measuring income inequality within nations--or, specifically, how far a country’s wealth or income distribution deviates from a completely equal distribution. Under this calculation, the higher the coefficient, the greater the income inequality within that country.
Topic:: Inequality, Resilience, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Society
Political Geography:: Global Focus

45. Lessons for the Age of Consequences: COVID-19 and the Macroeconomy

Author:: Servaas Storm
Publication Date:: 03-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:: Based on comparative empirical evidence for 22 major OECD countries, I argue that country differences in cumulative mortality impacts of SARS-CoV-2 are largely caused by: (1) weaknesses in public health competence by country; (2) pre-existing country-wise variations in structural socio-economic and public health vulnerabilities; and (3) the presence of fiscal constraints. The paper argues that these pre-existing conditions, all favorable to the coronavirus, have been created, and amplified, by four decades of neoliberal macroeconomic policies – in particular by (a) the deadly emphasis on fiscal austerity (which diminished public health capacities, damaged public health and deepened inequalities and vulnerabilities); (b) the obsessive belief of macroeconomists in a trade-off between ‘efficiency’ and ‘equity’, which is mostly used to erroneously justify rampant inequality; (c) the complicit endorsement by mainstream macro of the unchecked power over monetary and fiscal policy-making of global finance and the rentier class; and (d) the unhealthy aversion of mainstream macro (and MMT) to raising taxes, which deceives the public about the necessity to raise taxes to counter the excessive liquidity preference of the rentiers and to realign the interests of finance and of the real economy. The paper concludes by outlining a few lessons for a saner macroeconomics.
Topic:: Global Recession, Economic Inequality, Macroeconomics, Austerity, Public Health, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Public Spending
Political Geography:: Global Focus

46. Medical Security, Covid Challenge and the U.S. - Japan Alliance

Author:: Kent Calder
Publication Date:: 12-2021
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Fletcher Security Review
Institution:: The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:: National security has been classically conceived as a narrowly military and state-centric concept, especially in the Western industrial world. Security is, generations of strategists and statesmen have told us, a matter of defending core nation-state values and interests by force of arms. Two world wars across the first half of the twentieth century, and a long nuclear confrontation to follow, engrained this military and state-centric conception deeply into global consciousness and public discourse. The tragic COVID-19 crisis now confronting us suggests that this logic may be flawed, or at least oversimplified. Over 2.3 million people worldwide died in the first year of this global pandemic, with well over 100 million infected. These figures are likely understated.44 Untold millions of people continue to suffer from “long COVID” maladies around the world.
Topic:: Economics, Health, National Security, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Japan, Asia, North America, and United States of America

47. Mental Health Reforms in Lebanon During the Multifaceted Crisis

Author:: Sara Catherine Mourani and Marie-Christine Ghreichi
Publication Date:: 09-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:: Multiple disasters over the past two years have greatly harmed the mental health of the Lebanese population. Despite a long history with political turmoil, discussing mental health in Lebanon remains culturally taboo. Responses to mental health remain under-supported and challenges surrounding this sector will be critical in Lebanon’s transition out of the crisis. This paper seeks to investigate the current state of the mental health system in Lebanon and provides policy recommendations to improve its adaptability in responding to the multifaceted crisis the country is currently experiencing.
Topic:: Health, Reform, Mental Health, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Middle East and Lebanon

48. Data with borders for a borderless virus: Insights and recommendations from the case of Lebanon

Author:: Ghinwa El Hayek, Sirine Anouti, Ghina R. Mumtaz, and Lilian A. Ghandour
Publication Date:: 10-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:: Timely access to complete and accurate data proved to be one of the major lessons learned for an evidence-informed national public health response. In Lebanon, COVID-19 data reporting was mired with issues such as the fragmentation of publicly available data across many official reporting sources. This paper addresses the issue of data collection and sharing and provides recommendations for ways forward.
Topic:: Public Health, Pandemic, Data, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Middle East and Lebanon

49. The Mediterranean Region: A Hotspot of Inequalities in the Aftermath of COVID-19

Author:: Farah Al Shami
Publication Date:: 11-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:: The COVID-19 pandemic, which broke out in China in late 2019, reached the Mediterranean region by late winter 2020. While the impact of this crisis has been notorious on a global scale, it was remarkably more pronounced in the Mediterranean region as a result of economic fragility, exposure and transmissibility, and more importantly the quality of state and non-state responses which had a multidimensional multiplier effect on wealth distribution, access to health and education as well as other essential services, regional disparities and gender inequality, among others. Ever since its outbreak, COVID-19 has significantly exacerbated existing inequalities and has created new ones. It has also exacerbated vulnerabilities and created new forms of vulnerability, thus increasing the gaps on various levels between different social groups. These consequences were also more concentrated in the Mediterranean region as compared to the rest of the world, as the region had already been witnessing rising trends of inequality in the last decade, and especially before the pandemic hit, due to political instability, economic decay and inefficient public policies. While this reality has been experienced by both the northern and southern sides of the Mediterranean, it has been more intense in the latter. However, this is not to deny that constantly increasing inequalities in recent history has made both poles of the Basin much more susceptible to an enigmatic and acute shock such as COVID-19. The impact of COVID-19 on multifaceted inequality in the Mediterranean is neither consistent nor linear. The region has witnessed declines in several forms of inequality and surges in several others. Yet, the overall impact in terms of the number and magnitude of increased inequalities versus reduced ones is negative, making the Mediterranean a hotspot of inequality in the aftermath of the sanitary crisis. Moreover, amplified inequalities have manifested in the Mediterranean Basin in the form of inter-country inequalities and intra-country inequalities – the former being mostly part driven by inter-sectoral imbalances. Inter-country inequalities have likely further cemented the north-south divide in the Basin. This paper examines the different forms and faces of inequality in the region by trying to conceptualize the situations of different countries, despite their dissimilar and divergent contexts. It proves that COVID-19 has massively increased multidimensional inequality through various channels and at a relatively higher rate with respect to other regions. The paper also demonstrates that the Mediterranean is the microcosm of the north-south cleavage, as it is the closest place where the South meets the North, which makes it a natural starting point for dialogue concerning the north-south dichotomy and inequalities. As such, this paper highlights the need for tangible cooperation across borders, between sectors, and among citizens and their representatives, both within the region – between the North and the South – and with other regions, to advance reforms that address the factors of inequity and inequality in an already fragile and shaky regional context.
Topic:: Inequality, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Africa, Europe, Middle East, and Mediterranean

50. Learning from Tumultuous Times: An Analysis of Vulnerable Sectors in International Trade in the Context of the Corona Health Crisis

Author:: Oliver Reiter and Robert Stehrer
Publication Date:: 07-2021
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
Abstract:: The COVID-19 pandemic marks an unprecedented shock to global growth and trade and brought international dependencies into the spotlight. This triggered discussions on resilience and robustness of global value chains. In this paper we assess which products can be considered as vulnerable to trade shocks at the global level – referred to as ‘risky’ products – by constructing a ‘product riskiness indicator’ for 4700 globally traded products based on components such as market concentration, clustering tendencies, network centrality of players, or international substitutability. In a second step the bilateral imports of risky products are matched to multi-country input-output tables enabling the analysis of the importance of internationally sourced risky products by country and using industries. Higher-tech industries are more prone to supply-chain vulnerability given the large share of risky products in high-tech product categories. Third, we apply a ‘partial global extraction method’ to assess the GDP impact of reshoring. Assuming that imports of risky products are re-shored from non-EU27 to EU27 countries suggests an increase in the EU27 GDP of up to 0.5%. The non-EU27 countries lose from such re-shoring activities accordingly. This suggests that it is also in the interest of the supplier countries and industries to assure robust or at least resilient supply chains. Finally, selected policy aspects in the context of the envisaged EU Open Strategic Autonomy are debated.
Topic:: International Trade and Finance, European Union, Economic Growth, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe

51. Learning from COVID-19: How to make care central to economic policy around the world

Author:: Ruth Pearson and Eva Neitzert
Publication Date:: 09-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:: After decades of neglect, the COVID-19 pandemic has made visible the vital role that the care economy plays in the functioning of economies and societies—and highlighted the deep crisis at the heart of it. Care recipients and providers of care have been on the COVID-19 frontlines, and the ability of governments to mount an effective response to the pandemic has been hampered by decades of policies that undervalued and neglected the care economy.
Topic:: Economic Policy, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

52. Dividing up Covid-19 vaccine: distribution based on countries’ weight

Author:: Al Jazeera Center for Studies
Publication Date:: 02-2021
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Al Jazeera Center for Studies
Abstract:: Ending the coronavirus pandemic is not only about the technical issue of vaccine development. The challenge is multidimensional, involving a global proprietary pharmaceutical system and an exclusive, nationalist tendency in wealthy, prosperous states.
Topic:: Nationalism, Vaccine, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Pharmaceuticals
Political Geography:: Global Focus

53. Nine Months of COVID-19: The Impact on South Asia

Author:: Aparna Pande and Husain Haqqani
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Hudson Institute
Abstract:: Since February of 2020, the eight countries of South Asia have been contending with the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The region has seen the third-highest death rate in the world from the virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, and brought long-term health impacts the medical community is only beginning to recognize. The economic consequences of COVID-19 on South Asia are proving to be even greater than the healthcare challenges in the region. Different South Asian countries have dealt with the pandemic in various ways, but the economic costs overall seem to be higher than the healthcare consequences. A lot has happened in the world’s most populous region since the “Crisis from Kolkata to Kabul: COVID-19’s Impact on South Asia” report was published in May 2020. This document serves as an update on the progression of the pandemic in South Asia.
Topic:: Economy, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: South Asia and Asia

54. High hopes, low expectations – Brussels’ perspective on the future of Europe after COVID-19

Author:: European Policy Centre
Publication Date:: 10-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: European Policy Centre (EPC)
Abstract:: A new report details the Brussels community's views on the EU's handling of the pandemic and the future of Europe after COVID-19. The COVID-19 crisis has sent shockwaves through societies and economies, altering the parameters of politics in Europe and beyond. Germany holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) at this make-or-break moment in European history. In the eyes of many Brussels-based stakeholders, this places enormous responsibility on Berlin's shoulders. They would like the German Presidency and particularly Angela Merkel to bridge existing divisions among the EU27 and use the crisis as an opportunity to promote closer European integration. However, there is scepticism that Germany can achieve this in its short six-month period at the helm of the Council. A similar duality of hopes and expectations also transpires from how different actors in Brussels perceive the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE): they acknowledge this initiative's potential for much-needed EU reform, but also doubt that it will produce meaningful results. These opinions are some of the headline findings emerging from a study undertaken between July and August 2020 by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), the European Policy Centre (EPC) and ifok. 224 individuals from 29 EU and non-EU countries (with Germans slightly overrepresented at 32%) completed an online questionnaire about their main concerns and expectations for the German Presidency in light of the current situation and concerning the Union's long-term future. Respondents ranged from a high number of members of European institutions (30%), think tanks (21%) and non-governmental organisations to business representatives (17%), plus a smaller proportion of diplomats, journalists and academics. The project partners also conducted 20 personal interviews with high-level Brussels-based stakeholders to deepen the quantitative information collected via the online survey. Overall, Brussels-based stakeholders are worried about the current state of European integration and 'dream big' for the Union's future. However, they do not call for deeper European integration as an end in itself. Their support for potential treaty change as an outcome of the upcoming CoFoE, for example, is conditional upon the actual need to amend the Union's primary law. Likewise, their ambitions to advance EU cooperation is mitigated by a healthy dose of realism: they recognise the resilience of existing dividing lines between member states and have come to accept the idea that differentiated integration is the most probable course of action from here on out.
Topic:: European Union, Crisis Management, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe

55. COVID-19: Lessons from the ‘euro crisis’

Author:: Fabian Zuleeg and Janis Emmanouilidis
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Policy Centre (EPC)
Abstract:: As the EU – and the world beyond – continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Fabian Zuleeg look back at a previous time of intense pressure and discord in the Union, the euro crisis, to glean valuable lessons and traps to avoid. They argue that the EU cannot afford to stall the process of unconditional solidarity any further. The legitimacy of the Union is at stake. The 2010-2015 euro crisis already highlighted the implications of a highly interdependent Union; the importance of acting quickly, forcefully and boldly; and the need to roll out decisive joint action and an effective European strategy. Emmanouilidis and Zuleeg apply these lessons to today’s health crisis to remind European, national and regional leaders that we stand together, and fall together. Unconditional solidarity guided by the principle of enlightened self-interest will be the Union’s answer to the crisis. Secondly, the EU should act early and forcefully if they are to get ahead of the curve. The Union should thus jointly set up and finance a common COVID-19 recovery and growth fund, and then implement a coordinated European ‘exit management strategy’. Rather than concentrating on one particular instrument, the EU institutions should assemble a convincing package deal that is explicitly supported by member states. Finally, all EU leaders must recognise that absolutist positions will undermine the search for an effective European strategy to manage and eventually overcome the COVID-19 crisis. Disunity, fragmentation and distrust will result in failure – not only for the crisis but also for the foundation of the Union itself.
Topic:: European Union, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe

56. Europe’s path to strategic recovery: Brace, empower and engage

Author:: Giovanni Grevi
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Policy Centre (EPC)
Abstract:: EU leaders should rise to the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and set the Union on the course of not only economic, but fully-fledged strategic recovery. This means strengthening Europe’s cohesion and resilience; leveraging Europe’s untapped potential to carry its full weight on the global stage; and engaging in upholding rules-based cooperation. If Europe fails to measure up to the task, the EU will drift towards more political fragmentation and strategic dependence. The health crisis has not only heightened but also highlighted Europe’s vulnerability to global challenges and disorder. The pandemic risks amplifying geopolitical competition, which is undermining multilateral cooperation at a time when sound management of our interdependence is crucial. Under such conditions, the dysfunction of the global order may lead to irretrievable system failure, with dire consequences for all. Europeans should not only craft a decisive response to the pandemic but also use it as a springboard to reinforce the EU and its domestic power base on the global stage. The EU and its member states must prepare to cope with power politics without endorsing its logic. They should become more strategic and, where need be, more autonomous. Discussion on a recovery fund should not be limited to the financial dimension, but instead thought of in terms of ‘grand strategy’. Socioeconomic recovery is the fuel of political cohesion, which in turn is the engine of a stronger Europe in the world. A more powerful Europe is the only vehicle geared to protect EU citizens from the many external challenges and project Europe’s interests on the global stage.
Topic:: European Union, Economy, Recovery, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe

57. The U.S. Government Was Not Adequately Prepared for Coronavirus at Home or Abroad

Author:: Jimmy Kolker
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: American Diplomacy
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: : After retiring from the Foreign Service in 2007, Ambassador Kolker spent four years at UNICEF before moving to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs there, he dealt with a number of international health concerns, including Ebola, Zika, and HIV/AIDS. This piece is adapted from his Virtual Presentation to an online DACOR audience on April 8, 2020. While the Coronavirus outbreak and pandemic found nearly all countries unprepared, U.S. lapses in addressing major documented flaws in our preparedness contributed to breakdowns of international collaboration and solidarity as well as institutional conflicts and stress on our health system at home.
Topic:: Government, International Cooperation, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

58. The Impacts of Covid-19 on Children and Social Policy Responses

Author:: Başak Akkan
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:: Children had received less attention in the early stages of the pandemic. The mortality rates among children have been almost non-existent, and consequently they have not constituted a risk group. However, in a country with high incidences of child poverty, Covid-19 could have a significant impact in aggravating the existing inequalities among children and in creating new forms of deprivation. Within this context, the impact of Covid-19 on children is analyzed under four headings: The poverty aggravating effect of the pandemic; the manifestation of inequalities regarding the physical (home) environment and living conditions of children; the deepening of digital inequalities and access to education; and increased and unrecorded cases of domestic violence and child abuse amid the lockdowns.
Topic:: Children, Inequality, Social Policy, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Abuse
Political Geography:: Turkey, Middle East, and Mediterranean

59. The Universal Basic Income Debate After the Covid-19 Pandemic: Has Its Time Come?

Author:: Ezgi Seçkiner Bingöl
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:: Universal basic income, which denotes a country allocating a regular unconditional cash grant to all its citizens, is back on the debate stage following the Covid-19 pandemic. This brief evaluates universal basic income together with the pandemic and focuses on examples of countries where basic income has been implemented. How can the universal basic income debate be grounded in Turkey in line with these examples? How can universal basic income acquire a position within Turkey’s social assistances regime, or can it even be positioned as an alternative to it? Is universal basic income possible in Turkey? This brief aims to discuss these questions.
Topic:: Public Policy, Economic Inequality, Universal Basic Income, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Turkey, Middle East, and Mediterranean

60. Transparency in the Fight against the Coronavirus: The South Korean Example

Author:: Hülya Görkem Demirbulak Bae
Publication Date:: 07-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:: South Korea constitutes an important example in fighting the pandemic. South Korea handled the process in a planned, rapid manner, and at the same time transparently. In fact, transparency has been one of the secrets of the country’s current success. In light of all of these developments, this essay will lay out how South Korea managed the coronavirus pandemic process and the policies it implemented, with a special emphasis on the role of transparency in the country’s fight.
Topic:: Accountability, Transparency, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Asia and South Korea

61. What a Pandemic Reveals: Health Inequalities and Their Reflection on Policies

Author:: Özge Karadağ Çaman and Selma Karabey
Publication Date:: 12-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:: The relationship of human health with social and the environmental factors has long been among the issues that have been dwelled on especially since the beginning of the 19th century. The field of medicine springing from these studies is known as “Social Medicine”. Although developments in pathology and microbiology caused the importance of social factors in the etiology of diseases to be set aside at the end of the 19th century, social medicine has acquired its currency again in later years. Indeed today, we need to read and understand the principles of social medicine more than ever.
Topic:: Health, Inequality, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

62. India as the Engine of Recovery for South Asia: a Multi-Sectoral Plan for India’s Covid-19 Diplomacy in the Region

Author:: Shyam Saran, Gautam Mukhopadhaya, Nimmi Kurian, and Sandeep Bhardwaj
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:: The Covid-19 pandemic presents an unparalleled challenge to the peace and prosperity of South Asia, home to one-fourth of the world population. Aside from the immediate health crisis, the pandemic also threatens to undo decades of economic development in the region and destabilize it socially and politically. It is imperative that India take on the leadership role in the region during this time of crisis. As the largest nation in South Asia, it needs to assume the responsibility of assisting its neighbourhood in combating the pandemic and getting on the path of a sustained recovery. This report, from the International Relations team at the Centre for Policy Research, offers a multi-sectoral action plan for India’s Covid-19 diplomacy in the region, covering critical areas of health, food security, ecology, trade and finance. Focusing on the immediate problems as well as long-term challenges, the report envisions a prosperous South Asia, with India as its engine of recovery.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Economy, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: South Asia and India

63. Coronavirus: Political Philosophy

Author:: A. Shchipkov
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: East View Information Services
Abstract:: THE CRISIS caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. Yesterday, we were living under the slogan, “Live as friends in a society without borders”; today, we are advised “to remain home and avoid con- tacts.” Each country is for itself. The slogan, “Less state and more mar- ket” has been pushed aside: anyone and everyone asks the state for help and protection. Yesterday, medicine was optimized to earn money; today, the sacred principle of profit has tumbled down. In January, hospitals were closed; today, new hospitals are being built. On the other hand, not all consequences of the pandemic are clear; we have not yet reached its end to verify the information collected about immunity, vaccines and virus mutations. We can only guess whether the pandemic happens only once or will regularly repeat itself. Today, the economy lives amid deep-cutting changes imposed by the pandemic. Promptly ended, they will be nothing more than temporary changes; if they continue for many years, they will change the very foundations of the economic, social and political systems. Overlaid on the other symp- toms of a world crisis (including a financial crisis), the pandemic created a synergetic effect. Time has come to assess possible results.
Topic:: Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

64. Two Superpandemics for One Humanity Is Too Many!

Author:: A. Krutskikh
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: East View Information Services
Abstract:: Interview woth Andrei Krutskikh, Special Representative of the Russian President on International Cooperation in the Field of Information Security, Director of the Department of International Information Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
Topic:: Cybersecurity, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

65. The Sino-Russian Disinformation Axis During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author:: Richard Weitz
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: For the first time, the European Commission has identified the People’s Republic of China (PRC), along with Russia and other actors, as responsible for conducting “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighborhood, and globally” (European Commission, June 10). In the past, PRC media management normally focused on censoring undesirable narratives at home while employing positive messaging to promote favorable images of China’s policies abroad. This contrasted with the more combative international approach traditionally adopted by Moscow. During the current COVID-19 crisis, however, PRC propaganda has followed the Russian practice of not only advancing positive reviews of its own actions, but also promoting negative messages about other states. The PRC and Russian foreign ministries have jointly complained that “certain [i.e., Western] countries, out of ideological bias and political needs, have been spreading disinformation, distorting history, attacking other countries’ social systems and development paths, politicizing the pandemic, pinning labels on the virus, and restrict[ing] and oppress[ing] foreign media for doing their job” (PRC Foreign Ministry, July 25). Their information departments have agreed to cooperate against the West’s media policies, including by executing joint digital media projects (Russian Foreign Ministry, July 24).
Topic:: Pandemic, COVID-19, Disinformation, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Russia, China, and Asia

66. PART I: COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Why South Korea’s Success is Hard to Replicate

Author:: Justin Fendos
Publication Date:: 10-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:: This article is the first installment in a two-part series. Unlike South Korea’s centralized approach to contact tracing, other democracies faced legal impediments to similar approaches. The second installment reviews alternative, non-centralized approaches currently being implemented in these countries and their limitations.
Topic:: Demographics, Science and Technology, Law, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Asia and South Korea

67. PART II: COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Why South Korea’s Success is Hard to Replicate

Author:: Justin Fendos
Publication Date:: 10-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:: This article is the second installment of a two-part series. It reviews the alternative, non-centralized approaches to contact tracing currently being implemented in many Western democracies. The first installment described South Korea’s centralized approach to contact tracing and the legal impediments to its implementation in other countries.
Topic:: Demographics, Science and Technology, Law, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Asia and South Korea

68. Japan and South Korea Can Lead Post-Pandemic East Asia

Author:: Fumiko Sasaki
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:: The COVID-19 pandemic has advanced two trends: the US-China confrontation and the increasing importance of soft power in the networked world. These developments present Japan and South Korea in particular—caught as they are between China and the United States—not only with serious challenges but also a grand opportunity.
Topic:: Governance, Grand Strategy, Multilateralism, Trade, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Japan, China, Asia, South Korea, and United States of America

69. Epidemics and Pandemics as Transnational Issues: The Challenge of the Novel Coronavirus

Author:: Robert Kim-Farley and Lauren Dunning
Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:: The first recorded pandemic occurred during the Peloponnesian War in 430 B.C. Suspected to be due to typhoid fever, the pandemic contributed to the Spartan victory over the Athenians. Since then, infectious diseases have had a significant impact on the course of human history. The explosive outbreak of the new novel coronavirus, COVID-19, was first identified in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province in the People’s Republic of China. The outbreak is again challenging the global community, its governance structures, and its mechanisms for international collaboration. Many key data points critical to fully characterizing the disease epidemiology of COVID-19—including transmissibility, potential for asymptomatic spread, and risk factors for severe illness or death—are still emerging; as a result, a collective global response under strong World Health Organization (WHO) leadership, followed by subsequent nation-level implementation, is vital to ensuring the good of the many is not sacrificed for the good of the few. COVID-19 is in the same family as the coronavirus of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the spread of which in 2002-2003 caused the first pandemic of the twenty-first century. It prompted the creation of an ad-hoc Emergency Committee (EC) composed of international experts convened under the International Health Regulations (IHR) that inform the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General. The IHR, which were last revised in 2005 following the SARS outbreak and subsequent calls for reform, obligate 196 state parties, including all WHO member states, to broadly work together to enhance global health security.
Topic:: Governance, Multilateralism, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

70. National Security Update 14: The Impact of the Coronavirus on Future Defense Budgets

Author:: Jack Kelly
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA)
Abstract:: Our fourteenth IFPA National Security Update examines the potential impact of the coronavirus on future U.S. defense budgets and the need for the Department of Defense to prioritize its programs and technology development efforts in the new budget environment caused by the global pandemic. The pandemic coincides with and intensifies threats and challenges facing the United States. These include not only heightening tensions with China but also likely efforts on the part of other adversaries to take advantage of perceived U.S. vulnerabilities. Topics addressed in our National Security Update series have included the Defense Department’s approaches to access advanced technologies developed in the commercial hightech sector; the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act; hypersonic missiles; missile defense priorities; nuclear modernization issues; President Trump's Executive Order on Electromagnetic Pulse; the status of the Space Force; China’s actions in the South China Sea and U.S. options; and the military applications of artificial intelligence.
Topic:: Defense Policy, Science and Technology, Budget, Weapons, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: China, Asia, North America, and United States of America

71. Covid-19: Urgent Responses

Author:: Petra Rethmann
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:: In the space of just a few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has radically transformed the lives of people around the globe. Apart from devastating health consequences for people directly affected by the virus, the COVID-19 pandemic has had major implications for the way people live and work, socialize and love, and make personal, political, and economic decisions. The elbow bump has replaced the handshake. Privately owned communications technologies such as Zoom and Skype have become media of necessity, not of choice. Unemployment is at record levels, the low-wage sector is growing, and short-term work and precariousness is on the rise. The downward mobility trend (Nachtwey 2016) that has been underway in, among others, Western capitalist states for a while, continues to cement itself. Fears of social and personal decline are growing. All of this, and more, harbors the danger of increasing polarizations, (re)producing old and new figures of enmity, hate, and blame. The pandemic has inflicted a level of pain that is deep. War metaphors have been and are being bandied around, enlisting us in a fight in which supposedly we are all together. But as the papers included in this collection show, this “we” is not harmonious, uniform, or even. It cracks across fault lines of poverty, gender, and race. Data from a variety of reliable sources show that African Americans, who suffer disproportionally from poverty, inadequate housing, limited access to good health care, and chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension, are dying from COVID-19 at horrific rates. In the banlieues and cités (public housing complexes) of France food-price spikes have triggered hunger riots. While many of us have had (and have) the privilege to work from home, others, including warehouse packers and front-line workers, have been exposed to deadly hazards at work. Domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence has increased, and stay-at-home measures have exposed women and children who live with violent men to great danger. Restrictions that translate into national-security policies have ramped up anti-migrant sentiments. And across Canada, as well as in other places, people in local nursing homes, seniors’ residences, and single-parent households are disproportionally affected and suffer. Indeed, it appears as if the very fabrics of the social, whatever they were before, are at stake.
Topic:: Digital Economy, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

72. Covid-19: Urgent Responses

Author:: Petra Rethmann
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:: In May 2020 the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition published a Working Paper entitled COVID-19: Urgent Responses. The paper produced by James Gibbs, Luseadra McKerracher, and Jessica Fields is part of this series. Together, then, the COVID-19: Urgent Responses includes ten exciting paper that also stand as a testimony to the challenges faced by many of us in these times.
Topic:: Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

73. The COVID-19 Challenge in Post-Soviet Breakaway Statelets

Author:: International Crisis Group
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: International Crisis Group
Abstract:: The threat of coronavirus looms large in six self-declared republics that have broken away from post-Soviet states. War and isolation have corroded health care infrastructure, while obstructing the inflow of assistance. International actors should work with local and regional leaders to let life-saving aid through. What’s new? Isolated and scarred by war, six de facto statelets that claim independence from successor states to the Soviet Union are acutely vulnerable to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Why does it matter? Immediate and long-term suffering will not only cost lives but could also harden divides between these entities and the states that claim them, posing further obstacles to eventual normalisation and peace. What should be done? All parties and stakeholders should cooperate across front lines to ensure international humanitarian access, the only way to stave off suffering in the near and longer term.
Topic:: Health Care Policy, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe and Post-Soviet Europe

74. Human Rights in Times of Global Crises

Author:: Ibrahim Al Assil, Nour El Achi, Mai El Sadany, and Sana Mustafa
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: Middle East Institute (MEI)
Abstract:: As COVID-19 spreads throughout the Middle East and civil wars continue, already fragile human rights protections are increasingly under threat. COVID-19 puts migrants and minority communities at increasing risk due to structural inequalities, and activist movements are losing crucial visibility and the ability to mobilize and gather in public. Meanwhile, the impacts of the virus expose existing injustices faced by detainees, women, and occupied communities. How are social movements in Lebanon, Iran, and Iraq adapting to changing dynamics as they confront pandemic-related shutdowns and existing internet restrictions? How do inequalities in the region’s legal systems prevent women from exercising personal rights, as domestic violence rates surge worldwide? What are the unique challenges faced by migrant workers, refugees, and IDPs? In countries with ongoing conflicts, what are the prospects for advocating for greater rights for detainees and prisoners of conscience?
Topic:: Civil War, Human Rights, Displacement, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Iraq, Iran, Middle East, and Lebanon

75. Covid-19 in Taiwan: Domestic and International Implications

Author:: Syaru Shirley Lin, C. Jason Wang, Vincent Wang, and Andrew J. Nathan
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:: During the coronavirus crisis, what was expected to be one of the hardest hit countries in the world has not only fared relatively well so far, but is now being widely lauded as a success story—Taiwan. With a population of 23.4 million, Taiwan has only reported 440 confirmed cases and seven deaths as of May 12. This panel will explore a series of questions. How did Taiwan manage the crisis and what are the secrets of its success so far? What are the risks that the pandemic could still worsen in Taiwan? How has the Covid-19 crisis affected Taiwan’s relations with mainland China? What has Taiwan done to assist other countries in managing the pandemic? How has Taiwan’s exclusion from World Health Organization (WHO) meetings and activities affected its ability both to manage the crisis at home, and to contribute to international management of the crisis? What can other countries learn from Taiwan about managing pandemic disease? What paths are available for Taiwan to contribute to global public health efforts? Has the crisis affected global support for Taiwan’s membership in the WHO? What are the implications for Taiwan’s global status beyond the WHO?
Topic:: Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Taiwan and Asia

76. Global Health Security – COVID-19: Health Pandemic to Food Crisis?

Author:: Luis Montesclaros
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:: While engaging in hoarding behaviour at the national level may seem like a strategic move in response to household hoarding amid disruptions in trade, doing so can potentially trigger a repeat of the 2007-08 food crisis.
Topic:: Security, Health, Food, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

77. Global Health Security – COVID-19 and School Closures: Why Education Sector Needs Protecting

Author:: Tamara Nair
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:: Around 90 percent of the world’s students are currently out of school as a result of the global pandemic. How prepared are we to face the fallout of having schools closed for this long?
Topic:: Education, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Labor Rights
Political Geography:: Global Focus

78. ASEAN Response: Pushing Back Vaccine Nationalism

Author:: Mely Caballero-Anthony
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:: As ASEAN economic ministers meet virtually this week to deal with, among other things, the severe impacts of COVID-19, their crucial task should be to strengthen multilateral cooperation. ASEAN should rally its dialogue partners and the private sector to make vaccines available to all. Can ASEAN centrality help push back the worrying trend of vaccine nationalism?
Topic:: Vaccine, ASEAN, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Asia and Global Focus

79. COVID-19: Private Sector’s Role in Times of Crisis

Author:: Christopher Chen
Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:: While people usually rely on the state in times of crisis, the scale and significance of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates a more inclusive global response. Can the private sector step in to fill existing gaps in the current response?
Topic:: Crisis Management, Private Sector, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

80. The Pandemic as an Impulse for the Development of New Technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author:: Jędrzej Czerep
Publication Date:: 07-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Polish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: A deep recession is projected for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the market for new technologies providing solutions helpful during the health crisis, is developing dynamically. In the medium term, the research and development sector will gain importance and become attractive for investments, also for Polish companies.
Topic:: Development, Science and Technology, Research, Business, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Africa, Poland, and Sub-Saharan Africa

81. The Berlin Pulse 2020 Special Edition: German Foreign Policy in Times of COVID-19

Author:: Pascal Lamy, Feng Zhongping, and Karen Donfried
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Körber-Stiftung
Abstract:: “Uncertainty is the only certainty” – these words are credited to the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, who died in the wake of an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year AD 79 which buried the city of Pompeii under volcanic ash. Whether or not the corona pandemic will be remembered 2,000 years from now, the virus reminds us of Pliny’s words: We may not yet know how SARS-CoV-2 will affect our societies, but affect them it will. Given this momentous event, like other organizations, we at Körber-Stiftung have had to respond with flexibility and a willingness to do things a little differently – one of the results is this special issue, juxtaposing German public opinion with international perspectives on the policy choices facing Berlin. This pandemic is occurring at a time of profound political change. Experts and policy-makers have pointed out for the better part of two decades now that whatever happens in China is likely to affect us. The absence of US leadership, a divided Europe, the increasing prevalence of international mistrust – like a focal lens, the coronavirus has shown us in all too much detail how these dynamics might play out over the next few decades. Germany has long struggled to adapt to these new realities. Germans have been told that their country will need to take on “more responsibility”, and that we will need to “take our fate into our own hands”. One example of how Berlin has tried to do so is through a renewed emphasis on multilateralism as a pillar of its foreign policy, not least by crafting the Alliance for Multilateralism. But how do these dynamics, and the spotlight they have cast on Berlin’s role in international affairs, square with public opinion? To answer this question remains the mission and idea of The Berlin Pulse.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Public Opinion, Multilateralism, Crisis Management, Transparency, COVID-19, Disinformation, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Africa, China, Europe, and Germany

82. COVID-19 and Canada’s Development Assitance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author:: Emily Gilfillan
Publication Date:: 12-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI)
Abstract:: COVID-19 has created unprecedented challenges for governments around the world. In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the global outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic. In addition to a worldwide health crisis, the pandemic has had far-reaching socioeconomic impacts that have been severest for the most vulnerable people and have exacerbated existing inequalities. This presents wealthy countries like Canada with a challenge: addressing the health crisis and economic fallout at home, while simultaneously supporting a global COVID-19 response and continuing to tackle existing development priorities. This report explores the implications of COVID-19 for Canada’s development assistance efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Given that 27 of the 28 poorest countries in the world are located in SSA and half of Canada’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget is expected to go to countries in Africa by 2021-22, it is a priority region. To date, Canada has maintained ODA spending levels, while also providing additional funds in support of global efforts to address COVID-19. Evidence suggests that pre-pandemic priorities in the region, such as gender equality, health, and food security, have not been derailed. Rather, the impact of the pandemic has reinforced the importance of core development objectives such as achieving the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) is fit for purpose to address the gendered impact of the pandemic. It is clear that the pandemic does not affect men and women equally. While the right policy tools are in place, building back better will require Canadian resolve and leadership to stay the course and ensure the most vulnerable are not left behind.
Topic:: Development, Gender Issues, Finance, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Africa, Canada, North America, and Sub-Saharan Africa

83. Food Security in Times of Crisis: Poor Developing Countries are Different

Author:: Michael Brüntrup
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Abstract:: Until now, the Corona crisis is mainly fought through lockdown measures. In more wealthy countries, these have barely an immediate effect on food security. In poor countries, the situation is different: There, these measures threaten people immediately. The text discusses issues and consequences.
Topic:: Development, Poverty, Food Security, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

84. European solidarity in times of crisis: a legacy to develop in the face of COVID-19

Author:: Yves Bertoncini
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Robert Schuman Foundation (RSF)
Abstract:: Now more than ever, the fight against coronavirus encourages an analysis of the foundations and limits of solidarity between the Member States of the European Union, just as the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, often cited for its call for "concrete achievements that first create a de facto solidarity".
Topic:: Development, European Union, Solidarity, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe

85. Libya and the COVID-19 Lifecycle: From Distraction to Dissidence

Author:: Anas El Gomati
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: COVID-19 has changed the world and the way we live it, establishing something of a “new normal” as states and societies battle the pandemic and learn to accommodate its multidimensional effects. For Libyans’ living in the midst of conflict, normality and a new normal are difficult to determine. The economy, healthcare system and everyday lives of Libyans’ have been far from normal as a result of the 18-month conflict sparked by General Khalifa Haftar’s attempt to overthrow the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. However, the pandemic and its dynamism has had an impact far beyond the everyday lives of citizens. The lifecycle of the pandemic has had a major impact on the conflict itself. It first served to distract international powers from their diplomatic obligations and peace building in Libya, acting as a cover for local factions and their foreign sponsors to intensify the conflict during the initial global shockwave of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020. Towards the end of 2020, however, the pandemic compounded socio-economic and political pressures in Libya, sparking national demonstrations and dissidence towards the rival factions, leading to political resignations and renewed diplomatic negotiations in the process.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Economy, Conflict, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Libya and North Africa

86. Special Commentary: COVID-19 and Brazil: Why the US-Brazil Relationship Matters More Than Ever

Author:: Dr. Jose de Arimateia da Cruz
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:: The global pandemic known as the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been wreaking havoc upon the world since it was first detected in Wuhan, China, at the end of December 2019. The disease rapidly spread to all provinces in China, as well as a number of countries overseas, and was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the Director-General of the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) contends that the COVID-19 pandemic is having widespread economic, social, and political effects on Latin America and the Caribbean, a region with strong economic and political ties to the United States. Brazil has been particularly hit hard by COVID-19. It has become a global epicenter for the disease with the second most COVID-19 positive cases in the world after the United States. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro announced July 8, 2020, that he had contracted the virus.
Topic:: Security, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Brazil, South America, and United States of America

87. Yemen’s Accelerating Economic Woes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author:: Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies
Publication Date:: 10-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Sana'a Center For Strategic Studies
Abstract:: Since early 2015, when the onset of war led to the cessation of large-scale oil exports, Yemen has been almost completely dependent on three main external sources to secure foreign currency inflows and stimulate economic activity: foreign humanitarian aid, Saudi financial support to the Yemeni government, and – by far the most significant – remittances from Yemeni expatriates, most working in Saudi Arabia. All three of these foreign currency sources have dramatically declined in 2020. The Saudi response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, in concert with record low oil prices, led to historic economic contractions and spending cuts in the kingdom, in turn undermining the ability of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis to work there and send money home. This occurred alongside a steep decline in international donor funding for the Yemen relief effort and the Central Bank of Yemen in Aden effectively exhausting the US$2 billion Saudi deposit it received in 2018. Roughly half the population in Yemen was already food insecure before the onset of the current armed conflict. The general economic collapse the war precipitated led to millions more requiring emergency food assistance to survive. The current acute shortage of foreign currency sources has profound implications for the value of Yemen’s domestic currency, and the country’s ability to finance fuel and basic commodity imports, and is likely to lead to the rapid intensification of the humanitarian crisis. This paper presents policy recommendations to address this situation for the United Nations and other international stakeholders, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, as well as the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the de facto authorities in Sana’a (the armed Houthi movement, Ansar Allah).
Topic:: United Nations, Economy, Conflict, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Middle East, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia

88. Sustainable Humanism Needed

Author:: Peter J. Jacques
Publication Date:: 09-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:: School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:: COVID-19 has become a central election issue, but to overcome this urgent health crisis America needs to tune out the echo chambers that repeat medical misinformation and conspiracies.
Topic:: Elections, Public Health, Sustainability, Pandemic, COVID-19, Misinformation, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

89. GovTech, The New Frontier in Digital Sovereignty

Author:: Clément Tonon
Publication Date:: 11-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI)
Abstract:: The COVID-19 crisis has been a catalyst for a surge in the GovTech market, while triggering debate around the use of new technologies in the public health response to the pandemic. More broadly, the health crisis has shed a new light on the strategic importance of some domains relevant to GovTech such as HealthTech, smart cities and EdTech. The French State has developed a comprehensive policy of government digitization but still suffers from a lack of investment in the GovTech sector: so far, it has been unable to nurture a GovTech ecosystem comparable to the French defense technological and industrial base. At the European level, the rise of GovTech solutions could deepen existing divides between member states, as shown by the uncoordinated development of tracing apps by European countries during the crisis. In the long run, the lack of European industrial and political strategy focusing on GovTech could turn Europe into a battleground for Chinese and American actors, which benefit from governmental support at home and abroad. The rise of GovTech companies challenges deeply rooted ideas on the meaning of the public sector and the role of the State. It underlines how technology can affect the values and core principles of democratic societies. In that sense, the growing technological competition between the US, China and Europe means much more than economic rivalry: it is a real threat to European democracy and strategic autonomy.
Topic:: Government, Science and Technology, Sovereignty, COVID-19, Digital Policy, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: China, United Kingdom, France, Estonia, Singapore, and United States of America

90. Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of COVID-19 and Policy Implications for Bangladesh

Author:: Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Abdur Razzaque, Jillur Rahman, and Wasel Bin Shadat
Publication Date:: 10-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Brac University
Abstract:: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing unprecedented health and economic crisis for global economies, including Bangladesh. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic as reflected in a massive loss of human life worldwide, drastic decline in economic activities and employment, huge pressure on public health and other support services, social and physical distancing, etc. has been devastating. Since the first confirmed case of infection in March 2020, Bangladesh, like many other countries, had to consider some extraordinary measures including, amongst others, closure of all educational institutions, enforcement of economic shutdown measures and gradual reopening of economic activities, rolling out a stimulus package for business enterprises, etc. This study is motivated by the fact that understanding the economywide impact of Covid-19 has been challenging in Bangladesh. Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model – a multi-region/multi-country computable general equilibrium comparative static framework – is utilized in this study to explore the potential impacts of COVID-19 induced disruptions for Bangladesh under three different alternative – low-shock, medium shock and high-shock scenarios. It outlines the transmission mechanisms through which the Bangladesh economy is being affected to assess the impact on major macroeconomic variables and sectoral outputs. These results are then incorporated into the social accounting matrix for Bangladesh to simulate the likely income and poverty effects for various types of households. This study also explores the likely impact of government support measures through the stimulus package in mitigating the adverse consequences.
Topic:: Economy, Public Policy, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Socioeconomics
Political Geography:: Bangladesh and South Asia

91. Possibility of Implementing the Concept of the Intermarium in the Context of Militant Democracy in Poland During and After the Coronavirus Pandemic

Author:: Kamila Rezmer-Płotka
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:: Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:: Intermarium is one of the most important Polish geopolitical concepts. This article considers it within the category of militant democracy. It allows to explore the process of militant democracy, that is, introducing restrictions by legal means. Most restrictions have recently been introduced due to a coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, the article undertakes to examine the potential for implementation of the concept of the Intermarium during the pandemic and shortly after its end. The study uses a qualitative analysis of sources. Indicators relevant to the study of the process of militant democracy were distinguished based on the body of literature. Results: The traditional concept of the Intermarium erodes due to natural causes. Currently, Poland is more inclined to the concept of the Three Seas. In addition, in the face of the analysis that was carried out, it seems that in a pandemic situation we are observing the end of the paradigm of liberal democracy in this case.
Topic:: Military Affairs, Democracy, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe and Poland

92. Masks Off: Chinese Coronavirus Assistance in Europe

Author:: Etienne Soula
Publication Date:: 07-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS)
Abstract:: As the coronavirus crisis spread across Europe in March, several countries found themselves desperately short of masks, respirators, test kits, and even healthcare staff as they struggled to contain outbreaks. With the EU and the United States initially slow to respond, China stepped into the vacuum. This paper looks at prominent Chinese coronavirus-related donations to Europe between March 12 and April 20, 2020, as well as at the Chinese media coverage and narratives that accompanied them. The prominence of donations was assessed using open-source data on donations from the Chinese authorities or from Fortune 500 or similarly large Chinese companies to European national governments, sister cities, and individual clinics and institutions. Assistance came in many forms and included financial support for the procurement of personal protective equipment, the dispatch of Chinese doctors, free access to cloud-based coronavirus diagnostic tools, and donations of testing kits and ventilators. Three points emerge from this analysis. First, Chinese assistance stretched well beyond the high-profile cases of hard-hit Italy and Spain to countries large and small. During the five-weeks period studied, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and large Chinese companies made 70 prominent donations to 27 countries across Europe. The numbers and distribution of prominent donations of coronavirus-related assistance paint a picture of Beijing’s widespread “mask diplomacy” in which countries’ needs alone were not strictly reflected in the help they received. Coronavirus infection rates alone do not fully explain the variance in Chinese assistance, suggesting that alleviating the health crisis may have been only one of many purposes behind the CCP’s decisions. Second, the donations by Chinese authorities and companies coincided with China’s national and economic interests. China’s state apparatus at the state, province, and city levels made donations, but the majority of prominent ones were from the Chinese private sector and foundations connected to it. However, with the CCP exercising an ever-growing level of control over the private sector, the distinction between public and private donations is not clear-cut and Beijing typically trumpeted both as evidence of its generosity. The perception-shaping potential of the donations is likely to have been one of the main drivers behind Chinese coronavirus assistance in Europe. Finally, Chinese donations were accompanied by a sustained communications and diplomatic push aimed at a global audience. The vast majority of the coronavirus assistance to Europe was promoted via all available channels. On state media, embassy websites, and social-media platforms, the authorities used the Chinese donations to Europe to deliver the CCP’s story. The positive messaging was also a way to pivot discourse about the pandemic away from its own failures in the early months of the outbreak. In parallel to the “shared future for mankind” narratives promoted by embassies every time donated medical supplies arrived in Europe, the CCP also showed a harder edge during the pandemic, much to the irritation of many European countries. Furthermore, since the period covered by this paper, Beijing has been doubling down on its newly assertive public diplomacy in Europe and beyond.
Topic:: Pandemic, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Foreign Assistance
Political Geography:: China, Europe, and Asia

93. China and COVID-19: a shock to its economy, a metaphor for its development

Author:: George Magnus
Publication Date:: 02-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: LSE IDEAS
Abstract:: The Chinese government’s draconian actions to control the coronavirus seem to be producing a remarkable economic contraction. As so many are unable to attend or resume work at the moment, the government’s palliative economic measures may gain little traction. Although the demand shock will eventually fade, other longer-term issues will surely endure. The supply shock will be less obvious but more corrosive. The government’s questionable conduct in managing the public health crisis has unveiled significant features about governance in Xi’s China that can be mapped on to China’s development. While this crisis is the biggest challenge Xi has faced, there is little doubt that he will survive it, champion the party’s role in the nation’s rescue, and feel emboldened to continue with his authoritarian governance. Yet it is this that, in the long run, will prove incompatible with China’s economic development ambitions.
Topic:: Development, Economy, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: China and Asia

94. COVID-19 has a postcode: How urban housing and spatial inequality are shaping the COVID-19 crisis

Author:: Jeni Klugman and Matthew Moore
Publication Date:: 12-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:: COVID-19 has underlined that spatial inequality is relevant—and costly—everywhere: not only in developing countries. The pandemic has exposed sharp inequalities in prosperous cities, such as New York and San Francisco, as well as in slums and informal settlements in developing countries such as Kenya and Iran. For an estimated 1.4 billion people living in informal settlements, home is crowded, inadequate, and unsafe. In the words of one observer, “[w]ith COVID-19, we are all in the same storm. We are not all in the same boat.” This paper presents the results of a rapid appraisal carried out in May 2020. It surveys how existing urban inequalities have played out in practice, how spatial inequality has shaped the repercussions of COVID-19, and how housing-related program and community responses have helped close—or exacerbated—these gaps. It also outlines the opportunities and prospects for longer term reforms. While data and empirical analysis are still nascent, academic, government, and civil society groups, as well as news outlets, have quickly ramped up efforts to document and study the pandemic and its numerous effects. We assess emerging evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts reflect residential segregation, including how they differentially affect renters, people who live in informal settlements, and the homeless. The COVID-19 crisis calls for rapid and innovative responses to address strains on lives and livelihoods. Our review identifies many promising emergency responses—from temporary eviction moratoria to cash transfer programs—aimed at mitigating COVID-19’s immediate impact.
Topic:: Inequality, Fragile States, Crisis Management, Cities, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

95. Global Health Security and Pandemics: Why didn't we know this was coming?

Publication Date:: 03-2020
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:: This video is the first in a series on global health security and pandemics, presented by Professor Sophie Harman (QMUL). In this episode, she will explore whether we should have seen the current global health crisis coming
Topic:: Security, Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

96. COVID-19 Global Impacts: Domestic Unrest – America at War with Itself

Author:: Barbara F. Walter, Erica Chenoweth, Christian Davenport, Jesse Driscoll, and Joe Young
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
Abstract:: Why are Americans at such odds about what should be done about the novel coronavirus? Why have Americans become so polarized, even on issues related to our health? What is the source of polarization regarding the pandemic and, if a pandemic doesn't bring the American public together, what will?
Topic:: Public Opinion, Domestic Policy, COVID-19, Polarization, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: North America and United States of America

97. Africa Versus Coronavirus: Four Much-Needed Capabilities

Author:: Mehari Taddele Maru
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Al Jazeera Center for Studies
Abstract:: For many African countries, prevention of Coronavirus has no alterative as financial and structural demands of treatment far exceed capabilities. Without stricter measures, the infection curve will be exponential and flattening it will take a long time with more deaths.
Topic:: Coronavirus, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Africa

98. Eight Heads of States versus Coronavirus: A Leadership Comparative Question – Part 2

Author:: Mohammed Cherkaoui
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Al Jazeera Center for Studies
Abstract:: It seems to be a three-way failure of leadership, national public policies, as well as international institutions, and should not be overshadowed by mere crisis management. By April 12, the infection cases escalated to 1,781,383 with 108,864 deaths worldwide.
Topic:: Government, Crisis Management, Coronavirus, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Global Focus

99. China’s Battle with Coronavirus: Possible Geopolitical Gains and Real Challenges

Author:: Jean-Pierre Cabestan
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Al Jazeera Center for Studies
Abstract:: China has tried to take advantage of the Coronavirus crisis to boost its international role and status. Nonetheless, China’s own mistakes in battling the virus as well as diplomatic aggressiveness have raised doubts about its capacity to become a world leader.
Topic:: Geopolitics, Coronavirus, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: China and Asia

100. How Arab States Take on Coronavirus: Morocco as a Case Study

Author:: Mohammed Issam Laaroussi
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Al Jazeera Center for Studies
Abstract:: Tremendous socio-economic and political challenges are facing Morocco during the Coronavirus crisis. Regardless of the promising signs of a short-term momentum in unity and institutional trust, the institutional weaknesses in the public policy and healthcare system have not disappeared.
Topic:: Politics, Coronavirus, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:: Africa, Arab Countries, and Morocco

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS