Cyril Ramaphosa, South African President and Chairperson of the African Union visits citizens under quarantine who had just been repatriated from Wuhan, China, following the Covid-19 outbreak.
Cyril Ramaphosa, South African President and Chairperson of the African Union, visits citizens under quarantine. | Photo: GovernmentZA | CC BY-ND 2.0

An Island of Internationalism: The African Union’s Fight Against Corona

Although corona is a global health threat, immediate reactions to contain its spread have mainly followed a logic of national sovereignty, threatening many of the hard-won achievements of decades of international cooperation. In this situation, the African Union (AU) is a rare case of internationalism: it has played an important role in providing coordination, expertise and technical support to its member states, engaging in advocacy, and mobilizing resources. It is imperative to applaud, but more so to support the AU in continuing to play its vital role as one of the few islands of internationalism these days.

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In this Sunday, March 22, 2020, photo supplied by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, military trucks load onto an Il-76 cargo plane in Chkalovsky military airport outside Moscow, Russia. Nine hulking Il-76 cargo planes are being loaded at the Chkalovsky military airport in Moscow as Russia prepares to send medical personnel and supplies to Italy to help the country's efforts against the coronavirus. The mission include eight mobile medical teams along with medical equipment and aerosol disinfection trucks is to begin Sunday, one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the aid in a telephone conversation with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, whose country has confirmed more than 53,000 coronavirus cases and over 4,800 deaths. (Alexei Yereshko, Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP) |
Military trucks load medical supplies onto an Il-76 cargo plane in Chkalovsky military airport outside Moscow, Russia. (Alexei Yereshko, Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

From Russia with Love?! Putin and the Pandemic

For Russia the novel SARS-CoV-2 still seems to be the best of a bad lot, as the country still reports relatively low numbers of infected people. But, if coupled with other pre-existing problems (power transfer and economic hardships), the pandemic could exacerbate an already unstable situation and lead to new unpredictable foreign policy moves. Russia’s strategy in times of SARS-CoV-2 is most likely going to be threefold: further working on its global image by sending aid and offering assistance; shifting its focus from the near abroad to great power politics; and doubling up the ongoing information warfare if the first two do not bring immediate results.

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US-Briefmarke zum Gedenken an den 20. Jahrestag der Vereinten Nationen
US-Briefmarke zum Gedenken an den 20. Jahrestag der Vereinten Nationen | Foto: Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain

Infizierte Weltordnung: Ende des Lagerdenkens – Comeback der UN!

Das Corona-Virus könnte die schon länger kriselnde internationale Ordnung grundlegend verändern. In den Reaktionen auf die globale Pandemie deutet sich – so unsere These – ein einschneidender Paradigmenwechsel an: Das bisher dominante Paradigma des Wettkampfs wird Schritt für Schritt abgelöst von einem neuen Paradigma der Kooperation. Noch ist unklar, wie nachhaltig dieser Trend ist. Aber die Krise macht Wandel möglich. Globale Solidarität lautet das Wort der Stunde: Es ist Zeit für egalitären Multilateralismus – und ein Comeback der UN.

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Weil es in der Region keine Gesichtsmasken gibt, wurde begonnen welche in einer Kleiderfabrik herzustellen. Das Foto zeigt mehrere Arbeiter beim Nähen der Masken.
In einer alten Kleiderfabrik in Idlib werden nun Gesichtsmasken genäht. | Photo: picture alliance/ZUMA Press

Corona und die humanitäre Situation in Syrien: Die drohende Katastrophe in der Katastrophe

In der aktuellen Berichterstattung über die COVID-19-Pandemie wird kaum über das Schicksal derer berichtet, für die die Coronaviruskrise eine dramatische Verschlechterung ihrer ohnehin oft hoffnungslosen Situation bringen könnte: Vertriebene, Flüchtlinge, Menschen in Konfliktgebieten. Die Corona-Krise droht existierende humanitäre Krisen zu verschärfen. Ein Blick auf Nordsyrien zeigt, dass ein COVID-19-Ausbruch in solchen Situationen einerseits neue Konflikte hervorrufen und andererseits die COVID-19-Pandemie selbst weiter verschärfen könnte.

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The empty Piazza San Marco in Venice | Photo: Kaveman743 | CC BY-NC 2.0
The empty Piazza San Marco in Venice | Photo: Kaveman743 | CC BY-NC 2.0

COVID-19 as a Threat to Civic Spaces Around the World

As countries across the globe are desperately trying to control the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapidly increasing number of governments have started to impose severe restrictions on core civic freedoms. Although restrictions are currently necessary to save lives and protect health care from overburdening, these emergency measures must be proportional and strictly limited in time. It is crucial to monitor how restrictions are implemented to prevent governments from using the current crisis to justify new constraints on civic spaces, which have already have been shrinking in many places during the last 15 years.

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Das Foto zeigt die Webseite "Coronavirus - a soldier from Allah" auf einem Smartphone.
Extremists of all stripes reinterpret the Coronavirus pandemic to serve their ideologies. | Photo: PRIF

The Coronavirus as a Means to an End: Extremist Reinterpretations of the Pandemic

Various aspects of society and everyday life have become affected by the clampdown on the Coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions enforced to prevent it from spreading. While the spread of COVID-19 continues to be fought and researched under extreme pressure, many uncertainties remain regarding its origin and the social, political and economic consequences. These uncertainties are easily exploited by extremists such as right-wing and Islamist extremists. The spread of the Coronavirus is thus accompanied by the propagation of extremists’ discourses. Within a short period of time, they reach thousands of people – not only but especially via social media. 

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