In The News

Free Trade’s Underlying Condition: Reuters

John Foley April 7, 2020
Individuals tend to panic and hoard during a crisis. The same is true for nations that must distribute protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic with globalization, reliable supply chains fall by the wayside. With demand running high for protective masks, the US president ordered 3M to supply US markets before Canada and Latin America.“The $80 billion company protests, pointing out that...

George Orwell Lives: The Times of India

Nayan Chanda April 6, 2020
George Orwell’s novel 1984 describes an unsettled society under constant surveillance by a totalitarian government promoting ignorance and striving to control every action and thought. In the absence of trust, leaders expect citizens to agree mindlessly with any proclamation regardless of the facts. Nayan Chanda compares the novel to China’s propaganda and censorship in touting its leadership...

Global Pandemic Strategy: Project Syndicate

Josep Borrell April 5, 2020
The world confronts a common enemy in COVID-19, and choices made today will shape individual communities and the world in the months and years ahead, explains Josep Borrell for Project Syndicate. A natural instinct is to fend for one’s self. “Going it alone all but guarantees that the fight will last longer, and that the human and economic costs will be far higher,” he writes. “Although the enemy...

Threat to Western Multilateral Order: New Statesman

Paul Mason April 3, 2020
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...

Half of Humanity Confined by Pandemic: DW

April 3, 2020
Confirmed COVID-19 cases exceed1 million worldwide, and the death toll is more than 50,000. Numerous economies imposed shutdowns of all but essential services like food, ordering citizens to shelter in their homes and avoid crowds. “Coronavirus prevention measures that include required or recommended confinement, curfews, and quarantines have been put in place in over 90 countries and territories...

Better Safe Than Sorry: National Post

Sten Vermund April 2, 2020
COVID-19 spreads rapidly, posing a threat to the vulnerable including the elderly and those with chronic conditions. Sten Vermund, dean of Yale School of Public Health, urges aggressive measures for a virus that is overwhelming hospitals and health care providers. The new coronavirus emerged in November 2019 and quickly spread around the world. Until more data is collected, communities should...

Inept Multilateral System: Council on Foreign Relations

Stewart M. Patrick April 1, 2020
With COVID-19 sweeping the globe, “international cooperation has been missing in action and global solidarity has been AWOL,” reports the Financial Times. Instead of confronting the shared threat, countries take unilateral steps to protect themselves, exchanging blame for the pandemic. The Group of Seven, Group of Twenty and the United Nations have taken limited actions. The G7 finance ministers...