Great-power politics was set to be the dominant frame for understanding global interactions in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has both laid bare fault lines of great-power competition, and underlined the need for global cooperation on a range of issues. The behaviour of great powers has made it increasingly difficult for other global actors to trust, or take at face value, what great powers say or commit to. History, however, suggests that even adversarial powers can cooperate on specific issues of mutual interest. The shape that great-power relations will take in a post-COVID-19 world remains uncertain. How will the experiences brought on by the pandemic and the responses to it continue to impact national as well as great-power politics in the years to come?
The recording of the webinar is available at FIIA’s YouTube channel:
