Loading...
Global Challenges
Special Issue no. 1 | June 2020
Politics of the Coronavirus Pandemic
Start reading
Articles for this issue
Global Challenges
Special Issue no. 1 | June 2020
Politics of the Coronavirus Pandemic

A pandemic is not just a medical emergency – it is also a political, economic, and social crisis. It implies new challenges for democratic institutions and practices, for citizenship rights and human rights as some of the restrictions on civil liberties put in place by liberal and illiberal democracies may well outlive the coronavirus. This special issue explores some tensions and dilemmas of democracies faced with the current crisis. “Politics of the Coronavirus Pandemics” addresses questions like: Can we speak of a decline in politics during the pandemic? While states have been using the full gamut of their sovereign prerogatives, has the political (temporarily) faded in the face of, for example, “expertise”? What will be the lasting impact of the rule by administrative fiat, and of emergency powers put in place in many countries? What kinds of agenda and instruments of civic activism are likely to emerge given that courts are rarely in session and public protest not permitted due to distancing rules? What are the likely consequences of these reconfigurations for democracy, governance, and welfare systems in the global South and North?

Articles for this issue

Politics of the Coronavirus Pandemic
  • I
     

    Covid-19: A Modern Apocalypse or a Temporary Shock to the System?

    Reading time: 5 min

    By Dominic Eggel, Research Adviser
    Christine Lutringer, Executive Director of the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    Marc Galvin, Executive Director of Research
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 1
     
    Stop coronavirus banner. Spartan shield, syringes and viruses. Vaccine development, combating the pandemic. COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) art. Protection of immune system. Medical background

    The Vaccine Race: Will Public Health Prevail over Geopolitics?

    Reading time: 6 min

    By Suerie Moon
    Co-director of the Global Health Centre
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 2
     

    Institutions under Stress: Covid-19, Anti-Internationalism and the Futures of Global Governance

    Reading time: 5 min

    By Nico Krisch
    Professor of International Law
    Co-director of the Global Governance Centre
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 3
     
    The Great Depression – Unemployed men queued outside a soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone.

    Covid-19 and Even More Unconventional Economic Policies

    Reading time: 6 min

    By Nathan Sussman
    Professor of International Economics
    Director of the Centre for Finance and Development
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 4
     

    Covid-19 and States of Emergency

    Reading time: 6 min

    By Neus Torbisco Casals
    Senior Research Fellow at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    Senior Research Fellow in International Law
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 5
     

    Pandemic as Revelation: What Does It Tell Us about People on the Move?

    Reading time: 5 min

    By Antonio Donini
    Visiting Fellow at Tufts University
    Research Associate at the Global Migration Centre,
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva
    and Alessandro Monsutti
    Professor of Anthropology and Sociology
    Faculty Affiliate at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 6
     

    Pandemic and Political Geographies

    Reading time: 5 min

    By Michael Goebel
    Professor of International History
    Faculty Affiliate at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 7
     
    “The Plague in Rome” by Jules Elie Delaunay, 1869.

    The Western Flu: The Coronavirus Pandemic as a Eurocentric Crisis

    Reading time: 6 min

    By Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou
    Professor of International History
    Chair of the International History Departmentt
    Faculty Affiliate at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 8
     

    A Gendered Perspective on the Pandemic

    Reading time: 6 min

    By Elisabeth Prügl
    Professor of International Relations/Political Science
    Director of the Gender Centre
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 9
     

    A National-Liberal Virus

    Reading time: 5 min

    By Jean-François Bayart
    Professor of Anthropology and Sociology
    Yves Oltramare Chair for Religion and Politics in the Contemporary World
    Faculty Affiliate at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 10
     

    Depoliticising through Expertise: The Politics of Modelling in the Governance of Covid-19

    Reading time: 5 min

    By Annabelle Littoz-Monnet
    Professor of International Relations/Political Science
    Co-director of the Global Governance Centre
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 11
     
    Yayoi Kusama's “Infinity Mirror Room” in the Broad Museum, 8 August 2019, Los Angeles, California.

    The Politics of Covid Apps

    Reading time: 5 min

    By Anna Leander
    Professor of International Relations/Political Science
    Deputy Director of the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding
    Faculty Affiliate at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 12
     

    Human Rights and Covid-19

    Reading time: 6 min

    By Sara (Meg) Davis
    Special Advisor on Strategy and Partnerships at the Global Health Centre
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 13
     

    Emergency Use of Public Funds: Implications for Democratic Governance

    Reading time: 6 min

    By Deval Desai, Christine Lutringer and Shalini Randeria
    Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 14
     

    Unequal Impacts of Covid-19: Political and Social Consequences

    Reading time: 6 min

    By Graziella Moraes Silva, Assistant Professor in Anthropology and Sociology
    Faculty Affiliate, Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
  • 15
     

    Covid, Hysteresis, and the Future of Work

    Reading time: 4 min

    By Richard Baldwin
    Professor of International Economics
    Co-director of the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

     

    Read article
  • 16
     

    Populism 4.0 and Decent Digiwork

    Reading time: 5 min

    By Maria Mexi
    Research Associate at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy
    The Graduate Institute, Geneva

    Read article
Other Issues
Issue no. 7 | April 2020
image
Start reading
Global Governance in Peril?
Global Challenges
Issue no. 7 | April 2020
Global Governance in Peril?

The present Dossier takes stock of the current state of the multilateral system and its future prospects. It aims to explore to what extent global governance is in crisis as the global geopolitical order is undergoing fundamental shifts and liberal universalism is losing traction. It assesses potential of reform in extant institutions as well as emerging trends, tools and forums that are reshaping multilateral practice on a daily basis.
Note – The dossier was drafted before the Covid-19 world crisis.

Forthcoming Special Issue | March 2023
image
Start reading
Urban Morphology & Violence
Global Challenges
Forthcoming Special Issue | March 2023
Urban Morphology & Violence

The essays in this volume are the product of a new 'research practicum' course in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. They build on the debates on 'Urban Morphology and violence' to reflect on the associations between cities - their political orders and disorders - and outcomes ranging from occupation and resistance to marginalisation and containment. These texts foreshadow the possibility of centring - and challenging - the urban in our understanding of contemporary conflict, violence and peace. They are a first step in opening up a research agenda for a more textured analysis of spatial, geographical and temporal dynamics within the city in relation to violence, and, therefore, the mobilisation of spatial, temporal and visual modes of analysis. The promise is to make visible the varied roles of urban morphologies - adding to the debate on cities in and as sites of conflict.