Author: Richard Haass
Affiliation: Council on Foreign Relations
Organization/Publisher: Foreign Affairs
Date/Place: June 2020/USA
Type of Literature: Article
Word Count: 5936
Link: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-06-05/protests-pandemic-world-watching
Keywords: COVID-19, America, China, Foreign Policy, Racism
Brief:
Covid-19 has changed the world in many aspects, and its most vivacious and obscure affects can be seen in America. The crisis is challenging the preeminent power of the US, which is dealing with not only the pandemic but catastrophes on different fronts including an extended US-China trade war, and the Black Lives Matter movement. The article suggests that domestic politics might continue to travail US foreign policy goals, which foreign policy was in retreat and isolationist prior to the global pandemic. Included with this is that US President Donald Trump has proven to be as controversial and unpopular abroad as he is at home. The menace is that foes may perceive a US enfeebled and preoccupied, and then move to take benefit. An established security agenda has resurfaced, including a revisionist Russia, an escalating and more insistent China, and more accomplished aggressive middle powers such as Iran and North Korea. These trepidations stage the field with a new security schema that additionally features terrorists with global reach, climate change, and pandemics. The need is urgent for the United States to come together—to root out racism, restore its economy, and bridge its political divisions—sooner rather than later, for both its own sake and the world’s.
By: Maryam Khan, CIGA Research Associate
