Threat to Western Multilateral Order: New Statesman

The COVID-19 may soon present a geopolitical and security crisis in addition to the health and economic challenges, as the disease spreads from advanced economies and cities to rural communities and the global South. Fragile states could collapse. The United States and Europe, under stress, have not displayed traditional leadership roles with early pandemic communications or orderly distribution of medical supplies via trade. All this “has “opened a multi-pronged diplomatic opportunity to China, which having overcome the first wave of the virus is now exporting testing kits and ventilators to other countries,” writes Paul Mason for New Statesman. “If China’s containment policy – which could only have been enacted by an authoritarian state – actually works, while Trump lets a million Americans die for the sake of a stock market valuation, millions of people across the world will draw political conclusions. They will see that ‘the West’ as a concept is disintegrating, and that highly commercialised and atomised democratic societies cannot even protect themselves against a bat virus, let alone benignly administrate the global order.” Russian contributes misinformation, and the West faces hurdles for regaining global trust. The vast majority of the world’s citizens benefit from the Western order, though globalization could emerge from this crisis with new alliances, trade patterns and ideologies. – YaleGlobal

Threat to Western Multilateral Order: New Statesman

The COVID-19 pandemic poses health, economic and security ramifications; the US and EU can expect authoritarian and nationalist challenges to the Western order
Paul Mason
Friday, April 3, 2020

Read the article from New Statesman about erosion of the Western-led global order.

Paul Mason is a New Statesman contributing writer, author and film-maker. His latest book is Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being.

US Department of Defense Priority Actions, Advance international cooperation, Build international capacity, Ensure rapid response, Ensure early warnings and situational awareness, Establish border and transportation strategy, Establish screening protocols, implementation agreements             Ensure effective risk communications , Provide guidance on maximizing surge capacity, Provide guidance on transmission patterns based on scientific reports             Provide clear guidance for the private sector , Develop rapid diagnostics             Establish stockpiles , Advance technology and production capacity for vaccines
Strategy: The US Department of Defense prepared an implementation plan for an pandemic influenza for former President George W. Bush in 2006 (Source: US Department of Defense and Homeland Security Digital Library; photo, Wikipedia)

US Department of Defense Pandemic Plan:  Preparedness and communication:   Specify expectations and responsibilities    Stockpile supplies    Prepare distribution plans    Advance scientific knowledge    Plan for disease surveillance. Surveillance and detection:  Ensure international transparency, rapid reporting     Use surveillance to limit spread. Response and containment: Contain outbreaks     Leverage national medical surge capacity     Sustain infrastructure, essential services, economy  Ensure effective risk communication
On the mark: The US Department of Defense  prepared a pandemic plan for influenza in 2006 with the following assumptions: developed countries are quicker to prepare, detect and respond than less developed nations; pandemics travel in waves and not all locations are affected at same time; infections enter the United States from multiple locations and spread quickly (Source: US Department of Defense and Homeland Security Digital Library)

Together we will confront this emerging threat and together, as Americans, we will be prepared to protect our families, our communities, this Great Nation, and our world.”  - President George W. Bush   National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza

© New Statesman 2020