IHEID has introduced a new series of think pieces to reflect critically on the limits (or untapped potential) of existing governance systems and innovative ways to solve future global challenges. This is one of them.
The COVID-19 crisis has brought to light many realities about the contemporary global order, which was already far from stable. It demonstrates how quickly and deeply problems that originate in one part of the world can spread globally, highlighting the crucial need for collective responses. With 200+ countries and territories dealing with its consequences, the coronavirus disease pandemic has most obviously revealed the shaky foundations on which the global systems dealing with public health rest. But its effects go far beyond that.