What effect if any will the Pandemic have on the balance of power between nations?

 

Above you see the look of the times.  It has taken its toll on all of us.  The picture is of individuals, individuals working to be brave - although a bit foolish, for they are too close together - and this is what we see continuously and have for over a year.  Individuals under stress, coping.

But, individuals together form families, form businesses, form communities, form nations, form a world.  Individuals compete for life meaning and sustenance and space with other individuals, with other families, with other ... and on and on.  They also cooperate all up the line in a constant give and take that composes the activity of life.

Saints are born from the giving of life to others, despots from its theft.  Every level of organization continuously participates in the dance.  A pandemic puts all this in perspective, for all the human striving, something so simple as a mindless virus exposes vulnerabilities organic, social and international.  It does not care about vanities, for its mindless persistence is its strength.  Despot or saint, it cares not.  It forces confrontation with truths otherwise ignored.

Some nations have seen this as a challenge to face squarely and with discipline.  That discipline may be the iron fist of totalitarianism or it may be the cooperative faith in knowledge and the scientific method.  Some will see sacrifice while others seek advantage.  Emerging from the pandemic, who will have greater strength, who will have less?

I am American.  We have been quite a powerful nation since World War II.  We emerged as the mightiest military force on the planet and broadcast to all who would hear (whether they wanted to or not) that the American way of life was the greatest on the planet, not just the mightiest.  Yearn to be like us, yearn to be free and, like Superman, fight for truth, justice and the American way!  Live the American Dream!

Vietnam and the 60's put challenge to that, as did the Civil Rights movement and the sexual revolution.  Still, we decided to put a man on the moon within a decade and actually did it!  We could again believe in our greatness and our power.  But, now there were questions unanswered in many minds, new questions being asked.  It only took the rise of the American far right and Donald Trump to bring all those questions of freedom and inequality back into glaring view.  Of course, we still had the fallback of the equivalent of the moon shot to make us feel powerful and secure again.

So, the challenge came, the challenge that it was assumed could be a new American moon shot.  A virus had come forth from the wildlife of China.  And it was nasty!  Many died quickly, for this was a novel virus the human body didn't know how to deal with.  To this day, I remember when it was said that America was by far the best equipped to weather the storm.  We had the knowledge, the wealth and the people to handle it.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump proved more than a match for this advantage.  A nation capable of mobilizing itself for World War II was being directed by a man whose flaws were his outstanding feature.  He was simply incapable of getting out of the way of those who knew what they were doing.  Before he was done, more Americans lay in their graves from this virus than from World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined.  When time for the moon shot came, he decided he alone should redesign the rocket and, unfortunately, it simply fell over on the launch pad taking a half million Americans with it.  It also took the American myth with it.

Slowly, as we vaccinate, we may be emerging from the crisis all over the world.  But, America is not the de facto world leader it was, for allies have been treated poorly, enemies coddled and, perhaps worst of all in terms of world power, gross incompetence has been shown.  The supposedly iron clad American Constitution is showing holes in its fabric and there is a cold civil war taking place among its populace.

Simultaneously, other nations have shown capability very well, very well indeed.  The Chinese economy seems to have weathered this well from what I read.  Germany and other European nations have shown sense, unity and discipline in the face of the pandemic that bodes well for their strength.  The poor nations will still need much help for a considerable amount of time, but now we have very practical need to help them, for while they harbor the virus, it mutates and threatens new global catastrophe.

Is this a pessimistic posting?  Not really, not in my mind.  These times are the equivalent of the birth pains involved in bringing new life into the world.  The balance of power will never be the same and I think it well that those who have relied upon America turn their trust more to themselves than before.  In the meantime, America can work to actually become what it sought to be on paper, the land of equality, freedom and justice.  America and world have many chapters of this page turner left and the book will be an unfinished read when I leave this vail, but I work for my children and for my grandchildren.

For them, my dream is that they see a world with a true and healthy balance of power.

Please check out my other blog mates' takes on the same topic brought to us by Chuck, the Shackman, at their blogs.  Be patient, for we are restarting after a much needed breather: 

Maria

Padmum
Raju
Ramana
Sanjana
Shackman

Srinivas