SOFT-POWER MULTIPLIED.IN THE AGE OF CORONA

In the current circumstances some argue that one might have seen the last of globalization. After the many heterogeneous assaults, lately from the populist movements, it is said that the Covid-19 pandemic might have put an end to the multilateral saga. Countries turned inward and the response to the plague has more in common with cacophony than with harmony. As a result, former major players like the UN, the WHO, the EU and others, have been sidelined. America's new unilateralism further undermined a chance to pool information and medical "know how".

The next months will be crucial. All existing strategies and interventions will be tested. In case the situation were to remain confused or if the numbers were to make a U-turn for the worse, the alarm bells will be ringing. Panic might set in, creating a tsunami which could threaten the economy and social fabric worldwide. One hopes for the optimistic scenario  but it is advisable to prepare for the undesirable scenario, in case.

A global strategy is more desirable than incoherent angst. Unfortunately endeavors to arrive at agreed strategies are under attack, for political, religious and financial interests that do not dare to say their reason. The Corona crisis lays bare a tension between the "better society" and opposing interests. Many politicians are more preoccupied with self preservation than with the creation of a new commonwealth of science, experiment and nation rebuilding. They are dragged into the conversation but they will sabotage it if it might go against their interests.

There is a need for a balanced new multilateral approach:  new, because the existing one still carries the DNA for a world which no longer exists (voting rights, representation, mission statement, etc.).  Lately, many countries have chosen to take a separate route because of often legitimate frustrations, and Trump. This current crisis should reignite a renewed interest for a shared "soft-power "alternative. In the late 1980s soft-power came up as another more "friendly" way for domination (mostly by the USA). Today, soft-power could be pooled. The battles about AIDS or Ebola were won by sharing the mantle. 

Populists are rearming for a new war, choosing to reverse the path of progress, science and civil liberties. The (debunked) Laffer curve and the supply-side school of thought are some of the ways in which the conservative mind weaponizes and disguises its objectives. It is bad enough when the inequalities grow as a result but the same mindset dominates the "me first" formula which is already multiplying discord in America (and among European countries) with regard to Covid-19. If this perverse conservative mantra gets traction, the casualties will be more than the usual social, economical tremors, they will be lives.