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Who Runs The World? Global Governance and COVID-19

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Who runs the world?Global governance and covid-19

Andrew Drever- COL teaching fellow

Presentation1. Introducing ‘international relations’2. Recapping Covid-193. Anarchy 4. GovernanceQ&A5. Key questions6. Other perspectives7. Other issuesDiscussion

This evening’s session

What is it?

• The scholarly attempt to make sense of world affairs

•Generally multidisciplinary

•Often (but not exclusively) concerned with the relations between states• ‘The state […]should possess the following qualifications: (a) a

permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with other states.’

(Montevideo Convention, 1933: Art. 1)

1. Introducing ‘international relations’

What isn’t it?

• The study of politics that happens elsewhere• That’s properly in the domain of comparative politics

•A sub-field/branch of politics

• The study of relations between nations• Very little IR scholarship is concerned with relations between

nations; international is a total misnomer

NB: What we now have is just a working definition

1. Introducing ‘international relations’

• 31/12/19: World Health Organisation’s China office pick up official statement about cases of ‘vital pneumonia’ without known cause in Wuhan

• 09/01/20: China confirm cause of outbreak is a novel corona virus

• 13/01/20: Thailand confirm first case of covid-19 outside China

• 21/01/20: USA confirms first case in Americas

• 24/01/20: France confirms first European cases

• 29/01/20: UAE confirms first Middle Eastern case

• 25/02/20: Algeria confirms first case in Africa

(source: WHO website)

2. Recapping covid-19

As of 19/08/20

•22,000,000 confirmed cases

•14,000,000 recoveries

•770,000 deaths

2. Recapping covid-19

2. Recapping covid-19

Globalisation? A process characterized by…

1. The stretching of social, political and economic activities across political frontiers

2. The intensification of interconnectedness

3. The accelerating pace of global interactions

So

• The growing extensity, intensity and velocity of global interactions (see, e.g. the works of Anthony McGrew and Anthony Giddens)

• Let’s consider the case study of the United States

• The US government has repeatedly attacked the Chinese government’s handling of the crisis

• President Trump has made frequent rhetorical links between covid-19 and China• ‘Chinese flu’• ‘Plague from China’• ‘Wuhan virus’

3. Anarchy

• 07/07/20: Trump ends US membership/funding of the WHO• ‘China has total control over the

World Health Organization.’

• ‘Why is this a global competition to you when every day Americans are losing their lives and we're still seeing more cases, every day?’ (Weijia Jiang to Trump, 12/05/20)

3. Anarchy

• Those within the realist tradition of IR would say competition is pretty much unavoidable!

• States operate in an anarchic international system

• There’s no agreement about the rules of international relations and nobody to enforce them if there were!

• States have to rely on self-help to survive

• The best way of surviving is maintaining the current balance of power (see Waltz) or becoming a hegemon (see Mearsheimer)

3. Anarchy

• Trump’s belligerent stance towards China can be understood within the context of great power tensions in the international system

• The 20th century was the ‘American Century’ with the US enjoying its ‘unipolar moment’ after the Cold War

• The 21st century may be a ‘Chinese’ or ‘Pacific’ century and the US’s status as the world’s sole super power is in doubt• China’s high levels of economic growth• Increased military spending• Massive global development and investment programmes, most

notably the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’

3. Anarchy

• Let’s consider a different example: the World Health Organisation

• Implements and enforces a range of regimespertaining to global health issues• ‘Multilateral agreements among states which

aim to regulate national actions within an issue area.’ (Haggard and Simmons, 1987: 495)• E.g. International Health Regulations

• Plays a leading role amongst other international organisations, civil society groups, and states

4. Governance

• In response to covid-19

1. Improve country preparedness

2. Accelerate research and development

3. Coordinate across regions to assess, respond, and mitigate risks. (WHO.int)

•Heads-up Covax• Investment scheme to centralise vaccine purchasing, distribute

vaccines primarily based on need, and subsidise vaccines for poorer countries

4. Governance

• How do we make sense of such institutions?

• ‘Why and under what conditions do governments ever take international agreements seriously in a world of anarchy?’ (Keohane, 1989: 30)

• For liberal scholars of IR cooperation can and does occur

• States want to cooperate as cooperation solves market failures but they worry about cheating (just like realists)

• Institutions clarify the rules states have to adhere to

• Institutions make it harder to cheat by sharing information, e.g. on compliance towards rules by participating states

• Institutions also reduce the costs of cooperating by centralising negotiations

4. Governance

So why isn’t it working?

4. Governance

• For realists it’s simple:

• Cheating is just the tip of the non-compliance iceberg

• Structurally-enforced logic makes up the bulk of it

• That is, when acting according to self-help, states have to pursue relative gains

• So rational states don’t give up that stance unless they are compelled to do so by a more powerful state, i.e. a hegemon

• … and the hegemon has left the WHO and:

• ‘Our first priority of course is to develop and produce enough quantity of safe and effective [Food and Drug Administration] approved vaccines and therapeutics for use in the United States.’ (US Health Secretary Alex Azar, 10/08/20)

4. Governance

• Liberals on the other hand• May see this is as a collaboration problem• States want absolute gains but worry about cheating• More guarantees about information, oversight, and

enforcement will likely dispel these worries

• Constructivists question claims of both realists and liberals that states adopt a ‘logic of consequences’

• Rather, they adopt a ‘logic of appropriateness’ and their distinctive identities that underpin their interests are shaped by norms through interaction with other states

4. Governance

So where does this leave us on the question of implementing Covax and the possibility of governance (in an anarchic system) more generally?

Realists: rational states put their survival first and pursue relative gains – cooperation unlikely without hegemon

Liberals: rational states put their interests first and pursue absolute gains – cooperation possible with stronger regimes

Constructivists: states behave according to their identity and pursue gains appropriate to this identity – cooperation rests on identities of key states

4. Governance

Questions?

Do you have any questions?

Please type your question in the Chat box.

•Where does power lie and who or what rules the international system?

• Is governance possible within an anarchic system?

•Can world politics be about more than self-interest?

•Which explanation do you find most persuasive?

•Do you find any of them persuasive?

5. Key questions

Marxism: Is class pertinent to this discussion? Might different classes have conflicting interests? Whose interests do governments and organisations advance?

Feminism: Does a conventional analysis overlook the gendered nature of this issue? Are women and girls vulnerable to particular harms?

Post-colonialism: What dynamics are evident in the relationships between ‘the West’ and ‘the Rest’? What identities might underpin these and what policies do they justify?

6. (Some) other perspectives

•All of these approaches can be used to make sense of a wide range of topics in world affairs:

•Warfare, security, terrorism, weapons proliferation

•Global trade, finance, economic governance

• Environmental issues and climate change

•Human rights and humanitarian intervention

• The development of contemporary and historical international systems

The list goes on!

7. Other issues

Questions?

Do you have any questions?

Please type your question in the Chat box.

THANK YOU!We hope you enjoyed this Short Courses Online Summer Session.

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