The Impact of COVID-19 on “Globalization”

Posted: August 26th, 2021

The Impact of COVID-19 on “Globalization”

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the world’s understanding of different ideologies from nationalization to globalization and capitalism to neo-liberalism. The pandemic has disrupted international business processes and legal order by affecting the social, political, and legal as well as economic operations. However, the adverse effects of the pandemic on globalization are temporary and will lead to more international trade cooperation among nations in the long-run. Equally, the COVID-19 pandemic has inevitable results on globalization as it has threatened international trade among different countries. Therefore, the paper analyzed the social, economic, and legal as well as the political perspective of the pandemic on globalization to demonstrate the situation.

The Impact of COVID-19 on “Globalization”

Introduction

            According to Karl Marx, globalization promotes international trade as it enables people to settle and develop connections everywhere besides stimulating technological advancements among nations (Baylis, 2020; Economist, 2020). Hence, the outbreak of COVID-19 affected globalization from these two dimensions. The immediate impact was on the sizeable universal transportation system that enables mobilization and communication within and beyond borders(Baylis, 2020). Relatively, the high mobility of goods and workers from a large number of flights and cruises become highly vulnerablebecause of the spread of the virus. Subsequently, hyper globalization, coupled with lousy trade policies, continued to exposeeven more to the COVID-19 crisis, thus leading to loss of lives (Economist, 2020). At the same time, it affected businesses worldwide by hindering cross-border trading, thus reducing imports and exports.

Social effects of COVID-19 on Globalization

Socially, the crisis will strengthen national sentiments as individuals are likely to fall back to their nations. Ultimately, this would contribute to financial, emotional, and organizational strengths (Economist, 2020). Moreover, it could inspire and enhance cooperation among nations to tackle the frequent crises as no country had fully prepared on the pandemic (Baylis, 2020). However, in the long run, the crises may engender violence among people, increased criminal activities, and xenophobic behaviors as people strive to endear their nationalism.In the end, therefore, the initially existed globalization framework is likely to be distracted with new forms of emerging henceforth.

Legal and Political Effects of COVID-19 on Globalization

The short-term effects are devastating as many courts across the world have closed doors, such as the European Court of Human Rights and the USA’s immigration courts. Many countries have closed bounders to curb the spread of the virus, and international treaties have been put on hold leading to further fragmentation of cosmopolitanism and globalization (Mas-Coma, Jones & Marty, 2020). Thus, the pandemic has drastically affected Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) as most nations continue taking major nationalistic protective procedures to avoid foreign investments and privatization of crucial governmental sectors by adopting restrictive measures. Hence, the FDI is expected to reduce in the short-run and even deteriorate further in the long-run since countries will be reluctant to open their boundaries (Mas-Coma, Jones & Marty, 2020). Thus, the advent of the crisis implies that International Investment Tribunal has to be more understanding of public and protection policies.

Economic Effects of COVID-19 on Globalization

From an economic perspective, the COVID-19 has a devastating short-term effect on the global economy; oil prices have deteriorated with many sectors being grounded. The global markets have suffered the worst since the 2008 financial crises (Mas-Coma et al., 2020). Across countries, employees, especially those working in service industries such as tourism and hospitality, have lost jobs following the closure of companies in the related industry. Additionally, the risk recession is looming, with emerging markets clashed to hoard the dollar (Mas-Coma et al., 2020; Economist, 2020). Equally, international trading has been undermined due to increased imposition of restrictive and protective policies as nations devise measures to control the pandemic. Thus, it is hardly unrealistic to ascertain possible positive economic transformation in the long-run as there is no solution to the pandemic yet.

References

Baylis, J. (2020). The globalization of world politics: An introduction to international relations. Oxford University Press.

Economist. (2020). The Economist’s Coverage of the Coronavirus. Retrieved on 12 June 2020, from https://www.economist.com/news/2020/03/11/the-economists-coverage-of-the-coronavirus.

Mas-Coma, S., Jones, M. K., & Marty, A. M. (2020). COVID-19 and globalization. One Health, 9.