Opinion

Can Liberal Democracy Survive COVID-19? Friday, April 3rd, 2020

Is This China’s Global Leadership Moment?

When he welcomed US President Donald Trump to Beijing’s Forbidden City in 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed to the character “peace” in the names of all three halls of the great complex, emphasizing the Confucian maxim “Peace is prized above all.” The world needs to adhere to..

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How Democracies Can Beat the Pandemic Thursday, April 2nd, 2020

Europe is experiencing one of its worst crises since World War II. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its countries should turn to a classic democratictool for dealing with existential challenges: national unity governments supported by broad parliamentary coalitions. As it stands, many..

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China and America Are Failing the Pandemic Test

COVID-19 is confronting humanity with its most severe test since 1918, when an influenza pandemic killed more people than died in World War I. Yet the top leaders of the world’s two largest economies, China and the United States, have failed the first round. The initial reaction of both Chinese..

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Populists Love the Pandemic Wednesday, April 1st, 2020

Threats to national security invariably limit domestic political disputes. Now that governments have assumed a leading role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the political opposition in countries under populist rule is quickly being marginalized. In theory, the authorities in these countries could..

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The Politics of the Pandemic

The asteroid has hit, and suddenly everything has changed. But the asteroid that has crashed into our planet is invisible. One needs a microscope, rather than a telescope, to see it. With COVID-19, the world faces several crises in one: a global health crisis has triggered crises in the economy,..

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Will the Economic Strategy Work? Tuesday, March 31st, 2020

With the COVID-19 crisis bringing France to a halt, Insee, the French statistical institute, puts the drop in economic activity relative to normal at 35%. It reckons that the fall in household consumption is of a similar magnitude. These numbers imply that each additional month of lockdown reduces..

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The Two Pandemics

We are feeling the anxiety effects of not one pandemic but two. First, there is the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes us anxious because we, or people we love, anywhere in the world, might soon become gravely ill and even die. And, second, there is a pandemic of anxiety about the economic consequences..

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Welcome to the Post-Virus World Monday, March 30th, 2020

We live now in the post-virus world. For the United States, passage into this world came suddenly, less than a month ago. The world as we knew it before the arrival of COVID-19 has gone. It is never coming back. Once you reconcile yourself with this reality, many things become clearer, including..

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The West’s Pandemic of Fear

Confronted with a world that feels (and is) more dangerous, complex, and unpredictable by the day, people want to be protected and reassured at all costs. But there is a fine line between a healthy return to the notion of a protective state and a dangerous evolution toward Big Brother – whereby..

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HOW TO REVIVE INDIAN ECONOMY IN THE POST COVID19 PERIOD? Sunday, March 29th, 2020

It is reported all over the world that recession has set in after the COVID 19 disaster. At this stage, no one is clear how COVID 19 would end and how soon the end would happen. After the G 20 summit, It appears that there are no strategic and well coordinated global action plans to overcome the..

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Five Principles for the Pandemic Saturday, March 28th, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the world into a health and economic crisis of a magnitude that few could have anticipated but that everyone must now confront – together. Unless all countries deepen global coordination and cooperation as much as possible, the social stability of the entire..

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Waging War on COVID-19 Friday, March 27th, 2020

The world is at war. The enemy is resilient, ruthless, and unpredictable, with no regard for race, nationality, ideology, or wealth. Already, it has killed more than 26,000 people and infected over 560,000, from ordinary workers to the United Kingdom’s prime minister and crown prince. It has..

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A Gender Lens for COVID-19

When pandemics strike, world leaders and health responders must adapt quickly to the looming threat. Often the last factor they consider – if it makes their to-do lists at all – is gender. As advocates for the health and rights of girls and women, we’ve heard the excuses time and time again:..

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China’s Misplaced Pandemic Propaganda Thursday, March 26th, 2020

Barely a month ago, China was in the grip of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Thousands of new infections were confirmed every day. Hospitals were overwhelmed. People were dying by the hundreds. People couldn’t leave their homes. But the government’s draconian lockdown seems to have worked:..

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A Coordinated Response to COVID-19 Wednesday, March 25th, 2020

Within just a few months, the COVID-19 coronavirus has enveloped the world, infecting 435,000 people, killing more than 19,000, and overwhelming even advanced economies’ health systems. Once the shock hits vulnerable low-income countries, the already-high human and economic costs will rise..

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Will China’s Wildlife-Consumption Ban Work?

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, which is widely suspected to have emerged from Wuhan’s Huanan Market in December 2019, public-health and animal-rights advocates have been calling for more scrutiny of “wet markets,” where a wide range of live animals are kept in close contact with one another..

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NEED “CURFEW” ON DEBATES ON COVID 19 IN MEDIA AND SOCIAL PLATFORMS Tuesday, March 24th, 2020

Anxious to fill the space in these “corona days” and probably with the good intention of spreading awareness about COVID 19 , print and visual media are organizing debates between “experts” and social platforms are full of “views” on cause and effect of coronavirus. This has now reached..

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The G20’s Pandemic Moment

This week, G20 leaders will convene virtually to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. One hopes that the emergency summit marks the beginning of a thoughtful collective response to this grave challenge. If so, the meeting may turn out to be even more consequential than the London summit hosted by British..

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Saudi Arabia’s Radical New Oil Strategy Monday, March 23rd, 2020

Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to crank up oil production represents a dramatic shift in its thinking about energy markets and its own reliance on oil revenues. Gone are the days when Saudi oil reserves were prudently managed for future generations. By no longer maintaining a specific oil-price..

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