Shaping the post-COVID-19 world together

Issue briefs and reports

Jul 7, 2020

What world post-COVID-19? Three scenarios

By Mathew Burrows, Peter Engelke

A preliminary look at the geopolitical implications of the pandemic and possible directions for the global system after the still-unfolding crisis.

Coronavirus G20
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about the series:

Shaping the post-COVID-19 world together Scenario 1:
Great accelerator downwards Scenario 2:
China first Scenario 3:
New Renaissance

Taking stock: Where are geopolitics headed in the COVID-19 era?

Taking stock: Where are geopolitics headed in the COVID-19 era? The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed pressure points in the global order and threatens to unravel the rules-based international system. This paper examines the geopolitical implications of the pandemic by identifying key strategic shocks and tensions exacerbated by the virus. It also identifies uncertainties for the global order and provides policy recommendations for how the United States and its allies should address the pandemic.

A global strategy for shaping the post-COVID-19 world

The COVID-19 pandemic is an acute public health and economic crisis that is further destabilizing an already weakened rules-based international system. With cooperation, determination, and resolve, however, the United States and its allies can recover from the crisis and revitalize an adapted rules-based system to bring about decades of future freedom, peace, and prosperity.

What World Post-COVID-19

This paper is a preliminary look at the geopolitical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and sketches three scenarios for the possible direction of the global system post-COVID-19.

Defense, survival, and fiction: Implications of COVID-19

Max Brooks joins the Scowcroft Center for a virtual ‘fireside chat’ on the lessons of fiction for disaster preparedness, pandemic prevention, and national defense in the era of COVID-19.

China’s COVID-19 statistics resemble horrific past

The curious spikes in confirmed cases in China following changes in leadership or policy events evokes the terrible statistical manipulation and suffering of the Great Leap Forward.
Atlantic Council’s Coronavirus coverage

The Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security works to develop sustainable, nonpartisan strategies to address the most important security challenges facing the United States and the world.

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Content

An internally displaced Syrian girl wears a face mask as members of the Syrian Civil defence sanitize the Bab Al-Nour internally displaced persons camp, to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Azaz

Atlantic Council Strategy Paper Series

Jul 7, 2020

Middle East in turmoil even before pandemic hit

By Mathew Burrows, Peter Engelke

Weak public health systems, an over-reliance on hydrocarbons for economic growth, and a collapse in tourism point to particular disaster across the Middle East. Recovery will be long and slow absent intervention from non-regional powers.

Coronavirus Middle East
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., March 2, 2020

Atlantic Council Strategy Paper Series

Jul 7, 2020

East Asian allies dismayed by America first approach

By Mathew Burrows, Peter Engelke

Absent a vibrant American commitment to helping its traditional East Asian allies restart their economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, China could step in, gaining influence in East Asia at the US's expense.

Coronavirus East Asia
EU flag flying under a cloud sky in Germany

Atlantic Council Strategy Paper Series

Jul 7, 2020

Another test for Europe

By Mathew Burrows, Peter Engelke

The third pan-European crisis in a decade could further weaken EU solidarity, further widening gaps between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean South. Europe is unlikely to retain a multilateralist framework without US assistance and acquiescence from China.

Coronavirus Europe & Eurasia
A worker works at a textile factory in Qingzhou city, east China's Shandong province, 18 March 2020.

Atlantic Council Strategy Paper Series

Jul 7, 2020

A step change in Sino-American relations

By Mathew Burrows, Peter Engelke

Bipartisan agreement that China is to blame for the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with frustration that China is pulling out of the crisis before the US, could strengthen China's authoritarian tendencies while pushing the US toward isolationism.

China Coronavirus
Empty shelves in a grocery store

Atlantic Council Strategy Paper Series

Jul 7, 2020

Prospects for the COVID-19 pandemic

By Mathew Burrows, Peter Engelke

The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a global health crisis. It could spark global recession, while undermining globalism, cooperation and multilateralism, ushering in a renewed era of authoritarianism, isolation and open conflict between global powers.

Coronavirus Economy & Business

Issue briefs and reports

Jul 7, 2020

What world post-COVID-19? Three scenarios

By Mathew Burrows, Peter Engelke

A preliminary look at the geopolitical implications of the pandemic and possible directions for the global system after the still-unfolding crisis.

Coronavirus G20

Atlantic Council Strategy Paper Series

Jul 7, 2020

A global strategy for shaping the post-COVID-19 world

By Jeffrey Cimmino, Rebecca Katz, Matthew Kroenig, Josh Lipsky, Barry Pavel

The COVID-19 pandemic is an acute public health and economic crisis that is further destabilizing an already weakened rules-based international system. With cooperation, determination, and resolve, however, the United States and its allies can recover from the crisis and revitalize an adapted rules-based system to bring about decades of future freedom, peace, and prosperity.

China Coronavirus

Smart Partnerships Series

Jul 1, 2020

Can AI and emerging tech boost African development?

By Julian Mueller-Kaler

The final roundtable of the Smart Partnerships Series focused on the African continent and how AI as well as other emerging technologies can be harnessed there for good.

Africa Americas

Event Recap

Jun 18, 2020

War stories from the future: Launch of new Forward Defense practice

By Andrew Farnsworth

On Tuesday, June 2, at the inaugural event for the Atlantic Council’s newly-established Forward Defense practice, the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security hosted a panel of distinguished speakers to discuss the importance of thinking creatively about national security and defense.

Coronavirus Defense Industry

New Atlanticist

Jun 16, 2020

How the coronavirus has deepened the US-China ideological rift

By Chang-Ching Tu

Coronavirus has accelerated changing perceptions in Washington and Beijing and deepened the ideological confrontation between the two different political systems symbolizing "democracy" and "centralization."

China Coronavirus
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