GLOBALISM: THE BEGINNING OF THE END OR AN EVOLUTION?

Sophie Hondros

April 9th, 2020

Globalism, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is ‘the idea events in one country cannot be separated from those in another and that economic and foreign policy should be planned in an international way’. [1] Globalisation, the process by which businesses or other organisations operate and connect on an international scale, refers to the decrease or increase in the degree of globalism. [2] The dominance of Globalism came post WWII as an alternative to both the isolationism of the pre-war world and the bipolarity of the Cold War. The emergence of global human rights and free trade through the 20th and 21st century saw the rise of Globalism and henceforth led to the globalised world we live in today. [3]

The rapid spread of COVID-19 can be attributed to the dominance of globalisation and how inter-connected the world is. What began in Wuhan, China has turned into a global pandemic which has already caused tens of thousands of deaths world-wide. [4]

Indeed the dominance of Globalism is now being challenged by COVID-19. Described by the Australian as the ‘hunter-killer enemy of globalisation’ the implications of the global health pandemic as well as global economic shock has changed and may possibly further change our world. [5] Although COVID-19 is a global pandemic, citizens are turning now more than ever to their national government, and national governments are increasingly focusing solely on their citizens. Australia’s mandate to ban international travel and banning their own citizens from leaving the borders of their own country is but one example of this.

The omnipresence of mass-scale infection and the uncertainty of what this will mean for individuals within their nations has led to new behaviours and beliefs driven by local government mandates and recommendations. From China’s early factory closures disrupting global supply chains and product suspensions to subsequent economic crashes with the Dow Jones contracting 23% since COVID-19 started spreading, the interconnectedness of the devastating financial consequences is clear.[6]

Due to globalism, Australia is directly impacted by these economic shifts but it is not the global economy that is finding solutions. Economic hardship in Australia is directly addressed by the Federal and State Governments of Australia. The World Economic Forum has suggested the financial ricochets as a consequence of globalism may lead to ‘individuals, companies, and perhaps even government’ in the long term shielding themselves through complex and contingent contracts that complicate and limit global reliance. [7] Therefore the dominance of globalism in contemporary politics has seen the economic shifts caused by COVID-19 from one side of the world directly affect the other.

Conversely, maybe COVID-19 will not be the end of Globalism but the end of an American monopoly of influence and power in the West. Cases in the US are rising uncontrollably with nearly 200,000 confirmed cases and over 4,000 deaths—will the legitimacy of their power be challenged if they fail to address and control the virus?[8] Furthermore, with China investing their medical and economic resources to aid Europe in the fight against the virus, will the world no longer see the US as the global protector it once was? If the US cannot protect its own citizens and the US President is content with 200,000 deaths within his own country, how will they face global judgement?

Overall, whether COVID-19 is the first phase for the end of Globalism is contingent on the level of human and economic damage it inflicts around the world. Over the course of 2020, whether COVID-19 may in the future be considered a turning point for the entire global economy will be something to seriously consider.