Tuesday, 29 April 2025
On some global problems in pandemic politics

On some global problems in pandemic politics

It can be stated that the 2020 agenda of the world passes by trying to put the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle under the influence of coronavirus and pandemic. The efforts of states to manage this process on their own, the inability of international organizations to encourage cooperation and unifying structures at the table and in the field, and the political and economic rivalry between the USA and China played a role in shaping the global health crisis. In addition to these developments in international area, global pandemic politics face new opportunities and challenges with cooperation between developed and developing countries, the attitudes of international organizations, and the more active involvement of vaccine producing companies in the process.
In global cooperation, it is realized that international organizations (UN, WHO, WTO etc.) are important actors that should be consulted in terms of managing the process, although it is subject to criticism. It should be underlined that the experts and decision makers in these organizations can help them in cooperation with the states rather than political conflicts and carry out the information sharing traffic in a coordinated way to further increase the functionality and centrality of international organizations. It is beneficial to strengthen the sanctions and bindingness of international organizations in the coming years and to take deterrent measures against states that do not want to cooperate. On the other hand, international organizations that have failed to show a successful performance in the fight against the coronavirus also need to improve their own image and start building trust with states again.
In terms of the current consequences of the Covid-19, a situation emerges from which decision-makers on political and economic issues learn. When evaluated it in the context of international relations; the Covid-19 outbreak has made it necessary to re-evaluate the concept of security in the eyes of states around the world. While national security concerns have been at the forefront with terrorist attacks or inter-state conflicts, states are expected to include biosecurity discussions more sensitively in their national security programs in the future. In this respect, states make a separate budget assessment for biotechnological expenditures by the pandemic, although not as much as military expenditures.
Unless the importance of climate change for our planet is taken into consideration, the ecological balance deteriorates further and triggers the spread of epidemics. The ways to prevent this need to act collectively by the responsible countries, to make investments for the future by learning from past experiences, to analyze the more dangerous epidemics that may occur in the coming years, to make action plans, to organize the infrastructures in the necessary areas accordingly, and to use scientific methods and the opinions of experts in the field. In the fight against this global crisis, states should realize that international measures can be solved by organizing and cooperation, and political conflicts in domestic and foreign policy should be set aside. Otherwise, the Covid-19 will take its place in the history books as just a trailer of a bad movie, and future generations will have to face much worse pictures.
*Thanks to Lecturer, Mr. Ahmet Furkan OZYAKAR, Exeter University, UK.