Weaker together or weaker apart? Great power relations after the coronavirus
The coronavirus is a symmetrical threat: it hits everybody. How hard it hits depends in the first instance on the power of each and every state: the resilience of its health infrastructure, the speed and resolve of its crisis response, and the scale of its recovery package after the crisis. National leaders who attach more importance to their image of omnipotence than to the facts put their country at risk. The later one acts, the more people die, the greater the economic and societal disruption, and the slower the recovery. Many weak states anyhow have but limited capacity to protect their citizens, even with international help. The consequences of the corona crisis will obviously be asymmetrical, therefore.
This article was first published in Asia Europe Journal
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