Yan Lianke: ‘Propaganda is a nuclear bomb’ | Financial Times
"Foreign media tend to think all my books are about politics. I’m not concerned with politics; I’m concerned with the life struggles of Chinese people"
How the World Will Look After the Coronavirus Pandemic | Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
This much is certain: Just as this disease has shattered lives, disrupted markets and exposed the competence (or lack thereof) of governments, it will lead to permanent shifts in political and economic power in ways that will become apparent only later.
COVID-19 – A trigger for global transformation? | Finnish Institute of International Affairs
This Working Paper reviews the political significance of Covid-19 in order to understand the ways in which it challenges the existing domestic order, international health governance actors and, more fundamentally, the circulation-based modus operandi of the present world order.
The EU and the Coronavirus Pandemic
The union cooperates well in non-crisis situations, but its complacency, lumbering bureaucracy, and sluggish decision-making processes hamper its ability to respond to urgent developments.
How Europe failed the coronavirus test – POLITICO
They could have known. They should have prepared. They didn’t listen. It is a crisis with no end in sight. And it is one that Europe’s top leaders failed to see coming.
Stop calling coronavirus pandemic a ‘war’
The coronavirus crisis is an international, pan-human challenge. It certainly requires exceptional collective mobilisation, but no real weapons, no intentional killing of fellow human beings, and no casting of people as dehumanised others. Militarised language is unnecessary.
Coronavirus sees approval-rating soar for EU leaders
The prevailing wisdom holds that the Covid-19 pandemic could "break the EU", lead to the renationalisation of competencies, and create an inward looking continent devoid of solidarity. Yet this temporary trauma belies the tremendous opportunity emerging to create a more integrated and cohesive European Union.
Coronavirus economic vulnerability, economic impact and economic policy response tracker – SET
The Overseas Development Institute's SET (Supporting Economic Transformation) examines the vulnerability of countries to the coronavirus outbreak, the economic impacts and policy responses in a wide-range database of selected sources and other articles.
What COVID-19 Reveals About China-Southeast Asia Relations – The Diplomat
The COVID-19 outbreak that began in Wuhan in December 2019 will not leave Southeast Asia unscathed. As of April 7, some 15,000 COVID-19 cases have been identified in the region, according to official measures. Many believe that underestimates the true spread of the virus.
Pandemics and the Shape of Human History | The New Yorker
Outbreaks have sparked riots and propelled public-health innovations, prefigured revolutions and redrawn maps. Just as there are many ways for microbes to infect a body, there are many ways for epidemics to affect the body politic.