NICOLE FRITZ: A defensive China and an attacking US erode global governance
The coronavirus pandemic is forcing even the most responsible leaders to retreat behind national borders
29 April 2020 - 16:30
There’s an adage used in international relations: America sneezes and the world catches a cold. It’s a derivation of the original phrase coined by the Napoleonic-era statesman Metternich, who said: “When France sneezes, the whole of Europe catches a cold.” Today, it’s hard not to think that the phrase was always meant to be “when China sneezes …”.
Still, what the novel coronavirus has indisputably demonstrated, given the permeability of national borders, is that the sneeze might have happened anywhere — that once one part of the globe is sickened, we are all susceptible...
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