In 2018, 43 leading International Relations scholars in the United States signed a public statement in support of an urgent call to preserve the current international order, triggering heated scholarly debates. The idealized form of the liberal international order was criticized by many scholars for its chronic problems, including the contradictions between proclaimed liberal values and illiberal behaviors, the inability to reform its institutional pillars to accommodate the diverse group of emerging powers, and the…

Originally intended to help mobilise aid flows to ‘fragile states’, the OECD’s 2020 States of Fragility report is the thirteenth edition of a long series first published in 2005. Its intentions at the outset were arguably laudable. But for years, the backlash against the ‘fragile or failed states’ terminology plagued the report, which was re-named in 2015 to ‘States of Fragility’. Today, the report refers to ‘fragile contexts’ instead of ‘fragile states’ and has usefully…

Good governance and debt contingency planning are essential for containment and mitigating the economic impacts of the pandemic to avoid a deeper crisis. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising conflict, and escalating debt in Africa is a toxic cocktail that could soon implode. Governments and multilateral lenders need to work out pragmatic ways to neutralise and navigate out of the crisis.   Read more

Two young South Sudanese peacebuilders have co-authored a publication that portrays both the immense challenges faced by South Sudanese women peacebuilders in the time of COVID-19 and the extra-ordinary power and potential these women hold for building peace even during difficult times. Sixteen young women peacebuilders have contributed their stories and Vicky Amal Pax Kamilo and Ajwok Mary Valentino have consolidated the insights into this important piece of work. Download

COVID-19 hit a world woefully unprepared to fight it, because countries had failed to choose policies to fight inequality. Only one in six countries assessed for the CRI Index 2020 were spending enough on health, only a third of the global workforce had adequate social protection, and inmore than100 countries at least one in three workers had no labour protection such as sick pay. As a result, many have faced death and destitution, and inequality…

The securitization of health is not a new phenomenon. However, global responses to the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa reveal the extent to which epidemic preparedness and response is now shaped by geopolitical concerns. UN Security Council Resolution 2177 epitomizes this. The resolution asserted that “the outbreak is undermining the stability of the most affected countries … [and] the Ebola outbreak in Africa constitutes a threat to international peace and security” (UN 2014: 1)….

At the intersection of health, climate and conflict risks, four key pathways through which COVID-19 can exacerbate climate-related security risks stand out: Increased pressure on livelihoods and resources. The combination of COVID-19 and climate change impacts can put additional stress on livelihoods and resources, and reduce adaptive capacity, which in turn can exacerbate conflict risks. Negative impacts on migration as an adaptation strategy. Measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic can increase the…

In attempts to reverse the spread and prepare the curative care sector, and under huge uncertainties, many governments have responded to the COVID-19 outbreak with either voluntary or mandatory physical isolation and distancing measures. These have put state-society relationships in any political system under great pressure. In addition, many countries have shifted public decision-making authority from the democratic institutions to temporarily concentrated executive arrangements. With specialist expertise involvement, these arrangements enabled quick and invasive regulatory…

Inequality has been one of the defining issues of our times. Gaps between the rich and poor have widened even in the world’s wealthiest nations, where the post-2008 crisis economic recovery often failed to prioritise those most in need. A recent selection of research by Transparency International shows that the COVID-19 pandemic risks becoming another such disruption. It also makes clear the urgent need for global action to stop that from happening. Recent revelations from…

This week, the world hit an agonising milestone as the one millionth COVID-19 death was recorded. But the ongoing pandemic threatens to scar our societies in other ways, too. “Without urgent action, we risk deepening the divide – globally – between the rich and poor,” the head of International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva warned this week of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic, inequality between and within countries had been…