The Coronapolitics Report is RDM Advisory’s special publication looking at the coronavirus pandemic from a political risk angle. If you want to go straight in please click below, if not, check our executive summary.
Executive Summary
As the world appears to come to a mid-way in the crisis, we have identified four major themes which have shaped the state behaviour during the Covid19 pandemic: ''Authoritarianism and Civil Unrest'', ''Alliances and Diplomacy'', ''War and Terrorism'' and ''Protectionism.''
The coronavirus era has seen opportunist and defensive forces at play.
Some key findings:
1) While many governments, especially in Eurasia and MENA, have used the pandemic to cement authoritarianism (by power-grabbing, censorship and crackdowns), the opposition has found new venues and momentum to combat such encroachments.
2) In diplomacy, established alliances such as the EU strove to protect their integrity, in the face of others (Russia, China, Turkey) filling in their vacuum to help the virus-hit member states (Italy, Spain) through medical diplomacy.
3) Faits accomplis in the conflict zones (Libya, Yemen) were not tolerated by the warring sides, while terror groups (ISIS, PKK) benefiting from the security vacuums, have made limited comebacks.
4) While the state-funds and banks of some rich states (Saudi Arabia, China) went bargain hunting as assets plunged, the others (in Europe and Asia) strove to protect their industries, strengthening nationalization tendencies.
From our conclusion: ''While the notions and practices of authoritarianism, nationalism and self-sufficiency are on the rise, the abundance of solidarity, internationalism and interdependency carry hope for the post-coronavirus world.''
You can download the report by clicking the link below.