Shaping the post-COVID world together

The pandemic threatens to exacerbate America’s troubling turn toward isolationism and trip its antagonism toward China into open conflict. Can the country find its way back to globalization and multilateralism?

Will the pandemic accelerate US retreat into isolationism and further entrench China’s authoritarian tendencies? Or can the two major powers find a way to cooperate in the face of global threats?

Now facing its third crisis in a decade, Europe faces a pivotal moment. Will the crisis further widen the fissures between the North and the Mediterranean South? Or can Europe revive a spirit of solidarity?

With East Asia having apparently brought the pandemic under some level of control even as the epicenter shifts to the United States, will American influence in the region give way to a China-centered economic recovery?

The pandemic strikes a Middle East that is already laboring under overlapping political, economic, and humanitarian crises. With hydrocarbon prices slumping and tourism at a standstill, the region may lack the resources to jumpstart a recovery.

A lack of robust public health systems coupled with high poverty levels and rapid urbanization leaves much of Africa ill-equipped to deal with a pandemic. Will global powers step up to help? Or leave Africa to deal with the pandemic alone?

Can a Russian regime with a notoriously fragile public health system weather a massive coronavirus outbreak at home? Will the dual threats of pandemic and collapsing hydrocarbon prices doom Putin’s quest to retain power?

The dual threats of pandemic and global recession pose particular dangers for a region overly reliant on the commodities market and has weak public health systems. Will US isolationism lead to increased Chinese influence?

South Asian mitigation efforts have been confused and sometimes contradictory. What’s next for a region that is both the world’s largest producer of generic drugs and hosts woefully inadequate public health systems?