Is the global shortage of Covid-19 vaccines due to artificial scarcity?
The World Health Organisation has today called for urgent action to ramp up the supply of Covid-19 vaccines, echoing the growing concern of many commentators observing the divergence between what […]
What explains COVID’s east-west divide? (John Feffer)
COVID-19 has drawn a clear line between Asia and the rest of the world. What’s particularly striking about this latest divergence is the lack of significance in types of governance. […]
Radical pragmatism: policymaking after COVID (Gertz + Kharas)
Contemplating a world after COVID, some are calling for a reset of existing models of policymaking. In this essay the authors outline shortcomings in existing neoliberal economic models, and argue […]
Historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari urges the world to trust science
In a 14 minute program from France24's The Interview, Professor Harari talks about coronavirus and other crises confronting humankind, including the need for multilateral action on climate change and re-establishing […]
Global order in the shadow of coronavirus: China, Russia and the West (Lowy)
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a harsh spotlight on the state of global governance. Faced with the greatest emergency since the Second World War, nations have regressed into narrow self-interest. […]
Crises only sometimes lead to change. Here’s why. (Sheri Berman)
"The coronavirus pandemic won’t automatically lead to reforms. Great upheavals only bring systemic change when reformers have a plan—and the power to implement it". In this essay, Sheri Berman analyses […]
The challenges of the post-pandemic agenda (Jean Pisani-Ferry)
There is a growing possibility that the COVID-19 crisis will mark the end of the growth model born four decades ago with the Reagan-Thatcher revolution, China’s embrace of capitalism, and […]
The global order after COVID-19 (Stephen Walt)
The COVID-19 crisis will not produce a dramatic and enduring increase in global governance or significantly higher levels of international cooperation. Instead it is likely to reinforce divisive trends; to […]
Defence spending and plans: will the pandemic take its toll? (IISS)
That the pandemic will have an impact on defence ministries is beyond doubt. One way or another, national governments and defence ministries will have to grapple with the immediate and […]
The impact of COVID-19 on critical global food supply chains and food security (SIPRI)
By the end of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic risks doubling the number of people who face acute hunger from around 135 million to around 265 million people. The pandemic may […]
How COVID-19 will reshape Indo-Pacific security (The Diplomat)
This article is one of a number of pieces circulating that usefully starts to ponder the effect COVID-19 will have on strategic relations in the Indo-Pacific. It presents one of […]
The pandemic and the limits of realism (Seth A Johnston)
Realism is sometimes regarded as the foundational international relations theory. In this thoughtful piece, Seth A Johnston notes that realist scholars of international relations see the coronavirus pandemic as helping […]
Who’s first wins? International crisis response to COVID-19 (EUISS)
Is the pandemic not just a test for healthcare systems around the world, but an international contest for which country has the best political system? Did democracies really respond to […]
The strategic consequences of the coronavirus crisis
Bruno Tertrais proposes a provocative list of trends might be exacerbated or accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis. The list begs the tantalising question of how each of these trends might […]
Lessons from a global crisis: coronavirus, the international order and the future of the EU (Pol Morillas)
After COVID, the world may once again be flat and hyperconnected. Alternatively, coronavirus may be a turning point in the era of globalisation. […]
Cultures of expertise and politics of behavioral science: A conversation with Erik Angner (Cambridge)
Governments point to scientific advice. Who gets included in powerful expert groups, who gets sidelined and why? Why is epidemiology dominant? What values are implicit in behavioural science techniques like […]
Sonia Sodha: Nudge theory is a poor substitute for hard science in matters of life and death
How appropriate is behavioural economics as a basis for making public policy? Should it be called 'science'? What does the evidence tell us? […]
Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus
Yuval Noah Harari thoughtfully examines the issues around the rush to put in place technological surveillance-based responses to COVID-19 pandemic management, and governments’ pivot to nationalistic solutions to problems which […]
David McCoy: Faith in coronavirus modelling is no substitute for sound political judgment
David McCoy makes some important observations on the relationship between the scientific and non-scientific elements of COVID-19 decision-making; the inherent limitations of modelling – particularly when dealing with a novel […]
Evgeny Morozov: COVID-19 and the relationship of capitalism, neoliberalism and technology’s ‘solutionism’
In government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Evgeny Morozov sees a 'feast of solutionism' being unleashed. [W]e can see two distinct strands of solutionism in government responses to the pandemic. […]
Blinded by ‘the science’: COVID-19 and the authority of science in public policy
The choices made by governments are not based on science, but policy, that mixture of ideology, politics, and pragmatism. Governments are operating on the basis of choices between a range […]
EFF: The Challenge of Proximity Apps For COVID-19 Contact Tracing
There is a growing chorus calling for smartphone proximity technology to fight COVID-19. But smartphone tracking may not solve the problem, and contact tracing applications raise difficult questions about privacy, […]
Smithsonian: How and when will the COVID-19 pandemic end?
Two possible paths to ending the pandemic exist, neither of which is guaranteed. In either case, the first step is to reduce the rate of new infections by social distancing; […]
David Runciman: Coronavirus has not suspended politics – it has revealed the nature of power
In an article in The Guardian, David Runciman shows how the pandemic has removed "one layer of political life to reveal something more raw underneath". He writes, "As Hobbes knew, […]
Damian Carrington: UK Strategy to address pandemic threat not properly implemented
The UK’s biological security strategy, published in 2018 to address the threat of pandemics, was not properly implemented, according to a former government chief scientific adviser. Professor Sir Ian Boyd, […]