At a time when global cooperation is desperately needed, it seems to be scarcer than ever. G-20 leaders have effectively given up on trying to coordinate a global response to the coronavirus pandemic. Countries are beggaring their neighbors with export restrictions on medicines and food, and scrambling to snatch up medical supplies where they remain available. Among the various closures and cancellations to try to contain the spread of COVID-19, the World Trade Organization announced in March that it was cancelling the biennial ministerial meeting scheduled for June in Kazakhstan. The cancellation of a WTO ministerial meeting has barely registered [...]
Jean Palou of the Chilean daily El Mercurio interviewed WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, by email last week for an article on the prospects for multilateralism and global governance institutions during and after the coronavirus pandemic. Grunstein outlined the challenges to the international system that predated the pandemic; why global governance still matters, even if it has been hampered; and the major questions going forward as the next phase of this global crisis unfolds. The following is the full transcript. El Mercurio: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the coronavirus pandemic the most challenging crisis since the organization’s founding after [...]
There are many ways to think about how the United States and China, the world’s two leading powers, stack up as the COVID-19 pandemic has taken tens of thousands of lives and turned the world upside down in just a few weeks. Beijing’s lack of transparency and timeliness in disclosing details of the virus after its initial outbreak in central China, and the extraordinary lapse in wasted time in the United States between early reports of a dangerous spread of the disease and the first government efforts to inform the public of the true risks and prepare to limit the [...]
