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Geopolitics at Play in a Pandemic: An Analysis of COVID-19 Pandemic in International Relations

Joseph K Manboah Rockson*

The Coronavirus disease, known as COVID-19 pandemic hit the world at a time when the international system and its balance of power were already showing increasing signs of weakness. With such a panic at play worldwide, we have been witnesses to rising tensions, shrinking trust, and a notable degree of international cooperation fatigue on important matters of mutual concern by nation states. To discuss the type of world the pandemic has occasioned, and will likely leave in its wake, we must rely on theory; all the more so because we are dealing with an unfolding event in whose many aspects are unknown to us. Realist International Relations (IR) theory can offer important insights into the geopolitical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. From a realist vantage point, this paper argues that a prognoses about a radical change in world politics due to the crisis are unfounded and tend to be exaggerated. Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to reinforce major geopolitical trends that already characterizes the international system-a multipolarity before the outbreak.