General Article Coronavirus hasn’t killed globalisation – it proves why we need it

Topic Selected: Globalisation Book Volume: 416

Coronavirus hasn’t killed globalisation – it proves why we need it

Jernej Furman/Flickr

Sunil Venaik, The University of Queensland

In just a few months, COVID-19 travelled from China to more than 200 other countries, and has now killed more than 200,000 people. Some claim the pandemic sounds the death knell for globalisation – but in fact, it reveals the disasters that can arise when nations try to go it alone.

Examining where the world went right or wrong in its COVID-19 response may help mitigate another global crisis, climate change.

In the face of coronavirus’ global sweep, most national governments acted independently from each other, rather than in unison. Just as in global action on climate change, the responses of nations to the health crisis has largely been ad hoc, piecemeal and, in many cases, lethally ineffective.

My recent research as an international business scholar has focused on finding the common threads of national cultures. My research shows that people around ...

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