Pandemic Discourses #1
Pandemic Discourses #1
In May 2020, the India China Institute and the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs at The New School launched Pandemic Discourses to highlight perspectives on COVID-19 from different corners of the world, and especially the Global South.
Co-edited by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Manjari Mahajan and Mark W. Frazier, the blog shares reflections and arguments by scholars, public policy professionals, political leaders and artists among others. Through this diversity, it seeks to bring to the forefront variable and contested understandings of the problems at stake.
In the three months since the launch of the blog, we have published articles that discuss the experience of individual countries, identify the causes and consequences of the migrations triggered by the pandemic, and envision new global governance systems.
COUNTRY EXPERIENCES:
Cuba in the COVID-19 Era: Four Questions
Michael Cohen, Professor of International Affairs at The New School, on Cuba’s robust and effective response to the pandemic.
Propaganda Wars, in Russia and Elsewhere, Do Not Win a COVID-19 Battle
War metaphors have their uses, but they cannot hide the failure of governments to prevent and contain the devastation of the pandemic, writes Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at The New School.
Behind the Curve: India’s Failing Response to COVID-19
Sociologist Ravi Duggal discusses India’s journey from a humanitarian crisis toward a public health catastrophe.
MIGRATIONS:
Conceptual Issues in the Field of Forced Migration Studies: International Norms and the Internal Displacement of Workers Due to COVID-19
Alexander Aleinikoff, Director, Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School, on a new category of forced migrants: the pandemically displaced.
Co-published with the Cities and Human Mobility Research Collaborative, an initiative of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility.
The Virus of Democratically Elected Authoritarianism
Narendar Pani, Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, India, on the structural factors underlying India’s migrant crisis.
Co-published with the Cities and Human Mobility Research Collaborative, an initiative of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility.
Messy Does It: The Everyday Politics of Pandemic Response in an Indian City
Mukta Naik, Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, India, examines the migrant crisis in Gurugram and the civil society responses to it.
Hostages of Mobility
Biao Xiang, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford, on how the social and economic consequences of the pandemic have been shaped by the global economy’s dependence on our collective mobility.
Death by Lockdown: Thoughts on Causation and Non-COVID Deaths
Dinesh Mohan, Honorary Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, on how principles of road safety help us understand the human cost of the harsh lockdown in India.
Co-published with the Cities and Human Mobility Research Collaborative, an initiative of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility.
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE:
Pivoting Global Governance Towards Tackling Chronic Risks
Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, India, makes the case for reorienting multilateralism to respond to the most pressing challenges facing humanity.
The Use and Abuse of the Phrase “Global Public Good”
James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International, on why the definition of “public good” is a poor-fit in the context of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The Pandemic and the Challenges of the Multipolar Order: A View from the South
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Celso Amorim, the former President and former Minister of Foreign Relations of Brazil respectively, provide a roadmap for a new multilateral system in which international cooperation can truly flourish.
OTHERS:
Casualties of Preparedness: COVID-19 and the Global Health Security Paradigm
Andrew Lakoff, Professor of Sociology and Communication at the University of Southern California, on the origins of the pandemic preparedness regime, and why it has proven inadequate in responding to the challenge of COVID-19.
Will “Pandemic Socialism” Become the New Normal?
Zhiyuan Cui, Professor, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, asks if the responses to the ongoing economic crisis by major Western governments are here to stay.
Can a Virus Accelerate Change in Africa?
Carlos Lopes, Honorary Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town, makes the case for much-needed structural reforms across African countries in the wake of COVID-19.
