Pirate's Cove

Seriously, this won’t give the conspiracy theory folks ammunition, right? Because it’s not like former Obama State Department Policy Planning Staff member Edward Fishman is putting it to print, right?

How to Build the Post-Coronavirus World Order

International orders seldom change in noticeable ways. Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, the Pax Romana was not a passing phase: it persisted for centuries. The order that arose from the 1815 Congress of Vienna didn’t fully unravel until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

But at rare moments, confidence in the old order collapses and humanity is left with a vacuum. It is during these times that new orders are born—that new norms, treaties and institutions arise to define how countries interact with each other and how individuals interact with the world.

As the most far-reaching global disruption since World War II, the coronavirus pandemic is such a moment. The post-1945 world order has ceased to function. Under a healthy order, we would expect at least good faith attempts at international coordination to confront a virus that knows no borders. Yet the United Nations has gone missing, the World Health Organization has become a political football and borders have closed not only between countries but even within the European Union. Habits of cooperation that took decades to entrench are dissolving.

Well, let’s see, that’s rather because this is a disease that spreads through contact. Did Edward miss the part of about social distancing? Stay at home orders?

Five years ago, I represented the State Department in an inter-agency project to evaluate the future of the international order. We studied past transitions and discussed possible reforms. We recognized that the order was fragile and needed repair, but we also appreciated the power of inertia—it takes extreme moments for leaders to accept that the old order is broken and summon the will to forge a new one.

Now that extreme moment is here, and U.S. leaders have an opportunity that typically comes around just once or twice a century: They can build an order that actually works for our times—one that combats climate change, cyber threats and public health challenges, and that allows for the fruits of globalization and technological progress to be shared more widely. If, that is, they do it right.

No, no, nothing creepy about this. This is the kind of thing that gives people like Alex Jones wet dreams, yet, here Edward is saying that they want giant monster big world government, and will take advantage of the misery, fear, sickness, and even deaths of people to achieve it.

The coronavirus will arrest our lives longer than we’d like, but not forever—and when the crisis passes, the contours of the new order will take shape rapidly. To ensure that brief window is put to good use and not consumed by squabbling, U.S. and world leaders should begin collaborating now to formulate principles.

It would be foolish to expect President Donald Trump, who is one of the reasons that today’s international order isn’t working, to spearhead planning for a new one. We might have to wait for a more internationally minded president to form the institutions of the new order. But Trump’s presence doesn’t mean that valuable progress can’t happen in the meantime.

In other words, Trump would get in the way of instituting Modern Socialism, otherwise known as Progressivism (nice Fascism).

Despite temptations to find scapegoats for a pandemic that has already killed more Americans than the Vietnam War, U.S. leaders should be generous in aiding post-coronavirus recovery efforts around the world. Though Beijing doubtless bears blame for its suppression of early reports of the coronavirus, America and the world would be far better served by bolstering China’s public health system than by seeking to punish Beijing or embarrass it through racially insensitive epithets.

But, of course Edward is inclined to be nice to China.

At the same time, we need a revamped order among like-minded democracies—which, as a smaller group, can be more ambitious. The United States and its allies in Europe and Asia should come together into a council of democracies, expanding collective defense beyond the military realm to counter subtler menaces such election meddling, disinformation and financial coercion. On the economic front, it’s well past time for an international system that prioritizes human welfare over growth for growth’s sake. America, the EU, Japan and other democracies should seal new economic agreements in which increasing market access goes hand-in-hand with cracking down on tax avoidance, protecting data privacy and enforcing labor standards. Some level of pullback from globalization is inevitable and warranted. But absent planning now, that retreat will be chaotic and blunt, throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

That means the government runs the economy. Socialism. Never let a good crisis go to waste, right?

Read: Say, Who’s Up For A Post-Bat Soup Virus New World Order? »