By Zara Mansoor
The severe lockdown in the countries has caused uncontrollable humanitarian disaster along with economy turning down into a global recession and claiming more lives than ever in history after second world war.
Self-isolation, price hikes and food shortages are all badly impacting the daily wagers and leaving them with no choice just to stay ravening and quarantined. While on the other hand, those in the political corridor of power are getting benefited and still politicizing the lethal virus.
Ongoing world crisis are highlighting that neo-liberal world order- the modernized form of classical liberal economic, thought which dominated the economic policymaking means during the past centuries, has now facing a downfall as the market-oriented reform policies themselves are in the haunted phase and can no more influence the states and it will be more limited in the upcoming era because of the impacts of recent horrors of active threats.
Adding to this, the older conventional polices and the liberal policy stance of most states has now been militarized in order to cope with imbalances produced by the current bad situation of the globe.
Moreover, it seems that the post Covid-19 era is going to arise with the Deglobalization as it is being accelerating due to the hit of modern form of poisonous virus and the entire system has several points of failure as the economic trade and investments between nation-states has started declining, covid-19 has given shutdown to many national economies.
Factories are being shuttered, global supply chains disrupted, flights and cruises cancelled, closer of venues, National Health Systems are in big trouble and likely to collapse, tourism has crashed and oil prices are going lower because of the plummet in demands. The toppling of overwhelming power of corporations can bring cataclysm in the once well-proportioned global order. All these things are contributing in the breakdown of the global economy.
Besides, termination of mutual dependencies will also play a huge role in worsening the future relations amid states. The blame game amongst the previously dependent nations is ruining their future deals. The noxious global pandemic is reshaping the overall geopolitics and the changing world order from west to the rest has also been stuck at a standstill point.
Additionally, Economic Relocalisation of manufacturing facilities can entirely change the stream of capital flow from the vast industrialized world to the developed states or can make states more focused on centralized economy. This would permit states to maintain oneself by independent effort or become more self-sustainable.
Back in 1992, Francis Fukuyama- American Political Scientist, in his book “The End of History and The Last Man” clearly stated the post- cold war era as an end of ideological evolution and the universalization of western liberal democracy but all this epoch portrays now is that, the previously made assertions have ceased to exist and dropped prior prestige.
As the Chaos Theory goes, a small change in any event has the power to make bigger changes happen and one small incident in the beginning can have a huge impact on future and same went with the case of Covid-19, Trump’s misinformation, mishandling and denial to international cooperation paved way to the aggravated situation.
All the diplomatic methods were squandered and it made the world to pay higher price for living. US policies adopted in state of panic has led it towards many wrong paths which let the world to predict that China is going to emerge as new economic leader, but still US grips many high cards.
The major drop in the world economy and political contextual has dismissed the safe zone of stability from the planet and has rapidly increased the chaos. Following this, in an anarchic international system there is no hierarchically superior authority to resolve the conflicts, enforce law and order, punishes the responsible one and no coercive power to command and control the devastations of the world, so the current international arena’s crisis can only be fixed through nation-states’ own diplomatic defensive policies as all the superabundant resources to cope with the disaster has almost remained unsuccessful.
Further, an emerging conventional wisdom says, if the high consuming states fade away or become extinct, then the world’s economic leader will have nothing in order to preserve its status as a global hegemon. If there is no buyer, then the seller would be stuck with its shares until and unless some buying interest from investors come, otherwise work has to collapse and same will go with China if it arises as world’s economic power hub and other strong buyers fail to survive after playing dead with hazardous illness caused by ongoing disease.
Chinese policymakers should recognize if their state doesn’t rise to meet the moment to help other states in controlling the pandemic, it also won’t be able to strive alone in the world with no consumers and merchandisers.
As a consequence, the future international world order is likely to miscarry the stable foundations as the economical demise and political violence has already disintegrated the well-balanced policies which made the trade and diplomatic defense go round. Globalization and interdependence across continents or within states is likely to be ceased soon along with dawdling financial growth and curtailed trade.
Author of the article: Zara Mansoor (Political Analyst, Islamabad, Pakistan)
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy or views of World Geostrategic Insights)
Image Source: citi.io