The world order is always in question, Henry Kissinger is quite clear: a completely different world will emerge from the current surreal atmosphere of Covid-19. As the former Secretary of State has explained in the Wall Street JournalThe end of the pandemic will produce an inevitable reckoning for the management failures accumulated in different countries: "Nations coalesce and thrive on the belief that their institutions can foresee calamity, stem its impact and restore stability. When the pandemic is over, the institutions of many countries will be perceived as a failure".
From his pessimistic point of view (at 96 years of age, it seems unlikely that he will begin to doubt his proverbial political realism), Kissinger warns that this coronavirus has the ability to dissolve societies and cause profound social, economic and political disruption with the resulting suffering to be spread over perhaps more than one generation. And lest the effects of this epidemic be utterly devastating, Kissinger warns that this coronavirus has the ability to dissolve societies and cause profound social, economic and political disruption, "Big K It prescribes a titanic effort on three fronts: fighting infectious diseases as a priority, rebuilding the world economy, and safeguarding the principles of the international liberal order.
By way of contrast, Richard HaassThe President of the Council on Foreign Relationshas argued that not every major crisis necessarily has to be a turning point in the course of our history. And faced with the dilemma of metamorphosis or acceleration, Haass believes that the post-pandemic world is going to be all too familiar. According to his reflections published in Foreign AffairsIn the long run, further acceleration of established geopolitical trends is to be expected.
In Haass's view, the United States will have less and less influence in the world. Although the "American model" has been losing its appeal for quite some time now, to the benefit of powers such as China or even populists such as the US himself, he believes that the US will have less and less influence in the world. Donald Trump with its "America First". The pandemic also has the potential to reinforce the "democratic recession" evident over the past 15 years in a world with more and more elections and less and less freedom. It also acts as a bonanza for nationalism to the detriment of multilateralism, starting with the European project once again put to the test despite having long been engrossed in its polycrisis.
In the face of this looming recession of freedoms and values, the pandemic can also act as an accelerant. Too many people have for too long been haranguing that liberal democracy does not work. Even the way China's regime has turned its authoritarianism into the best medicine against the coronavirus is now part of the tired repertoire that questions freedom, human dignity and human rights as if democracy were the equivalent of a collective suicide pact.
Not wanting to miss out on a good pandemic, all sorts of insecure autocrats -The growing list of usual suspects is headed by China and Russia but also includes Hungary, Israel, Chile, Singapore, Jordan, the Philippines, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Thailand, Britain, the United States and Bolivia. The growing list of usual suspects is headed by China and Russia but also includes Hungary, Israel, Chile, Singapore, Jordan, the Philippines, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Thailand, Britain, the United States and Bolivia.
The great excuse shared by all these governments, which have so opportunistically started to jump all kinds of red lines in their permanent search for scapegoats, is that the extraordinary times we are living in require extraordinary measures. With the aggravating factor that citizens' anguish translates into minimal resistance to this disturbing abandonment of constitutional guarantees and other democratic considerations.
Of course the authorities need special powers to combat the current pandemic. The problem is when autocrats take advantage of the troubled waters of Covid-19 to assume powers that have nothing to do with the general interest. The viral speed with which these emergency measures are being passed and the technology available are not exactly conducive to either controls to prevent abuse or expiry when the damn virus is finally subdued.
The more than predictable result of this corrosive authoritarian outbreak will be a further erosion of democratic institutions, with even greater facilities for persecuting opponents and silencing dissenting voices. As stated by The EconomistThe world is distracted and the public needs salvation. It is the dream of every man.
Pedro Rodríguez
Associate Professor of International Relations at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas-ICADE. Teaching and research collaborator at American University-Madrid, Universidad Villanueva, Master ABC-UCM and the Franklin Institute. As a journalist, he has been the Washington correspondent for the ABC newspaper for twenty years. He is now an international columnist and analyst for different audiovisual media. He is a Fulbright scholar and has a Master's degree in International Relations and Mass Media from Georgetown University, his doctoral thesis is devoted to the political communication of the White House.