- Time to reassess priorities
For centuries, countries have preferred increasing military power, thinking this is what adds to their security and sovereignty. The year 2020, however, is an eye-opener for many such power seeking states who prioritised defence over human development.
The turn of the decade has so far shown both these aspects of state’s behaviour. In January, the world faced a threat of a war when the United States and Iran locked horns over the killing of Iranian Commander General Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike in Baghdad. The threat of war was alleviated after both sides realised that an all-out war would only lead to further destruction and neither side, especially Iran, could afford it. Just as the world took a sigh of relief from the global threat of war, there emerged a new threat from China in the form of coronavirus. It did not take long for the novel virus, also called Covid-19, to become a global pandemic, bringing life to a halt across the world and crippling already feeble economies.
This was unprecedented in human history. We had heard of lockdowns in specific regions or countries but the entire world had never stopped functioning at once. As of yesterday, the virus has infected more than 4.2 million people worldwide, claiming over 284,000 lives and forcing the rest of the world to stay at home. Doctors and nurses, not soldiers, are on the front lines to fight this invisible enemy. Ventilators and protective gears, not military equipment, are needed to save human lives. Welfare programmes, not defence deals, are keeping the poor from dying of hunger.
The war mongering has been forgotten against the collective good of protecting the humanity from a pandemic. Science and technology are the only saviours and all eyes are on scientists as the world awaits a coronavirus vaccine or a miracle that could end the pandemic.
With this pandemic causing widespread implications for the world, it is high time states redefine their priorities. Developing countries, like ours, have to face even worse consequences for they were already struggling with their economies, which can collapse if a vaccine is not discovered soon. The security dilemma has always pushed states towards higher military spending at the cost of development projects. This is evident from data released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) last year that the world military expenditure rose to $1.8 trillion in 2018, with defence spending in the US alone increasing by 6.6 per cent. It has been on the rise since US President Donald Trump has been in office. His denial and blame game with China has made the US one of the worst hit countries by coronavirus with the death toll now around 81,000. This forced him to give the mighty $2.2 trillion economic rescue package aiding businesses, workers and healthcare systems.
Contrary to this, global health spending stood at just $995 billion in 2019, according to World Health Organisation (WHO), which is in stark contrast with the gigantic military spending. The realpolitik has always cost human development but even the countries that claimed better healthcare facilities could not survive the coronavirus outbreak.
It has changed how security was viewed in 21st century. The dimension of human security has received a new meaning. The world is now convinced that human health and safety comes above everything. With travel restrictions and partial to complete lockdowns in many countries, the world has come to realise that defence power is of no use if human lives are in danger. The war mongering has been forgotten against the collective good of protecting the humanity from a pandemic. Science and technology are the only saviours and all eyes are on scientists as the world awaits a coronavirus vaccine or a miracle that could end the pandemic. We could have been a little optimistic had there been more investment in scientific innovations that would have contributed to the global race to find a vaccine but the current helplessness on the part of the world is disheartening, to say the least.
We are not sure how long it will take for the world to recover from this shock but once life gets back to normal, states would have to reconsider their previous protectionist policies and enhance their cooperation through increased trade to overcome the losses incurred to the economies. In crises like these, the importance of international organisations, international financial institutions and INGOs, has also been gauged as they have stepped forward in helping the world overcome the crisis and preventing an economic collapse.
This can be seen as the revival of liberal order for there is and will be an increased demand of cooperation, communication and integrated technologies during and after Covid-19 pandemic. This means the nationalist and populist sentiments that had been on the rise would have to be put aside with states investing more in human security, environment protection and development.
These are testing times and a part of the challenge emerges due to security-centric nature of states having long prioritised hard power over development. Among the many lessons this pandemic has taught us is that war is not the only threat to countries. If only states understand this in future and be better prepared to protect their people from unconventional threats.
