This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Pre-Covid the world had an economic based rules system in place which for the most part prevented wars and certainly prevented wars among the largest most powerful countries (West v East).
It was often said that China and USA could never go to war as they are so dependent on each other for trade and economic ties. If China done something to insinuate war with the US (e.g. invade Taiwan) it would have devastating economic consequences for them. The same example could be used for Russia - they dipped their foot in with hostilities towards western countries like annexing Crimea but previously would never go full blown into another country as it would be devastating from an economic point of view.
This is the system the developed world has followed post-WW2. It’s regarded that the desire for economic prosperity and fear of economic failure has prevented wars and kept us safe for the most part under these rules.
However, Covid changed all of this.
Covid forcibly plunged the whole world into economic ruin overnight. Double digit declines in GDP for most. Previously unfathomable decline in economic output was forced on every country in the world in the blink of an eye.
Ultimately though countries have come through it, leaders have survived it (for the most part) and they all live to fight another day.
It’s made me believe that countries are no longer scared of this potential economic doom that has been threatened up until now. Something much worse than what any other country can inflict on them happened overnight - Covid - and they got through it. I believe it’s made them think, ‘we don’t need to have our foreign policy dictated to by the rest of the world and if that means we take an economic hit we'll take it.’
What’s everyone’s thoughts on this? Will leaders of nations continue to prioritise short to medium term economic fortunes over foreign policy desires? Do we see a big change coming?
Covid didn't disrupt anything. What disrupted things was the idiotic response to covid, the massive authoratrain response, the continued demonization of countries over completely false memes. Leaders of governments and goverments themselves destroyed the world order.
Ding ding ding. I'm not saying older/medically compromised people dying isn't a tragedy, it absolutely is, but kneecapping your global supply chains and inflicting economic wounds on the entire population is vastly worse in my opinion for both the short and long-term. Even if the death toll were 10x worse amongst the most vulnerable population (elderly, call it 65+) if we hadn't locked down and printed money like it was going out of style the world beyond those whose families were directly effected would have barely slowed down if at all. Instead we now face potential food and energy crises on a global scale. But hey, stonks went up for a bit and the ultra rich made record gains over 2+ years so that's what really matters right?
Well, maybe making the world better and promoting economic development is not the best option for some countries and their leaders when maximizing their utilities. The covid just gave them the opportunity to do so.
I think you think too much, maybe quit reading too much news
Now that people are starting to realize that COVID originated from a Chinese lab, their intentions become clear. Disrupt the world and the greatest country on Earth with a bioweapon. Change the world order, China wins. Already our institutions are compromised by them, among other notorious groups. Our leaders are stupid, China isn't even hiding their attempts to steal our information and harm us.
China did it with the help of treacherous American politicians.
username checks out
The US needs China more than China needs the US.
Nope, it's a paradoxical symbiosis between two adversaries.
This is your brain on neoliberalism.
It's true tho
No shit Shirlock. Any major world event disrupts the world order.
As a matter of fact, it constantly keeps changing. That's the interesting thing about it
C0V1D-19 was the first shot fired in the new Cold War.
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