Volume 18, No. 5, 2021
Proliferation Of Covid-19 Pandemic: A Critical Analysis Of Us, China And Russian Foreign Policy Behavior
Dr. Shahid Hameed , Zahid Mehmood Zahid , Tahir Abbas Sial
Abstract
This paper explores the effects of the proliferation of COVID-19 on the great power politics and how patterns of cooperation and conflict were shaped. This pandemic increased the power competition between the big three US, China, and Russia. COVID-19 and resultant pandemic politics proved the ‘China Moment’ for China, where it expanded global influence with mask, ventilator, and vaccine diplomacy. America’s aversion to multilateralism under ‘America First’ put a question mark on its status. The type of regime, not the capability factor, played a pivotal role in this eventuality. The paper examines how US inaction during the pandemic presented an opportunity to China to increase its soft power potentials that inflicted a credibility crisis on the USA. Finally, this paper also explains why Putin’s Russia played a ‘geopolitical spoiler’ by going against the international norms, intimidating Europe, and weakening the liberal order.
Pages: 1941-1954
Keywords: Proliferation of Pandemic, Foreign Policy Behavior, Great Powers Politics, COVID-19