Nationalism And Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus. A pandemic is a disease outbreak that spreads across the globe.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic when it became clear that the illness was severe and that it was spreading quickly over a wide area. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, nationalism is surging and sweeping across the world particularly in major powers such as the United States, Russia, China, and some European countries. In recent years we have seen a surge of nationalist sentiment across many countries in the West and beyond, and the ideology is now shaping much of the response to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Nationalism has been deeply compiled into the global system and most communities around the world. In this way, Coronavirus is a global all-consuming and responsive state that essentially changes the fact. Everyone is stuck in a new era of global solidarity and is likely to destroy the network that has created the world. As many citizens are locked in, including those of countries usually in terms of their ability to cross privileged boundaries, appreciation of open boundaries may increase. Therefore, the world is unlikely to be more likely to be stuck with stronger boundaries. Until now, opening the closed boundaries for all citizens is a process drawn.

Keywords:

Nationalism, Covid19, Pandemic

Nationalism is an ideology and a movement that promotes the interest of a particular nation. According to Snyder-‘Nationalism is a condition of mind, feeling, or sentiment of a group of people living in a well-defined geographical area, speaking a common language, professing literature in which the aspirations of the nation have been expressed, being attached to the common traditions, and, in some cases, having a common origin.’ Plamenatz states that nationalism emerges when national identity is threatened or felt to be inadequate. According to Plamenatz ‘Nationalism is the desire to preserve or enhance a people’s national or cultural identity when that identity is threatened, or the desire to transform or even create it when it is felt to be inadequate or lacking.’ Nationalism is not the same as patriotism. While patriotism is a bit more of a vague word to describe the love and devotion to a country, its ideals and values, nationalism is more the promotion of a nation’s culture, language, and supremacy above others. In this sense, nationalism is often race or ethnicity-driven, which can have dangerous consequences. While the spread of the virus clearly represents a massive challenge for countries, the walls appearing everywhere are more worrying. Some countries across the world have already started to behave in selfish ways declaring the situation a national emergency, giving political speeches that haven’t been used since the Second World War. It all started with Asians facing racism everywhere in the world sometime in January and February and then it extended to other nationals sometime in February like Iranians and Italians are a good examples. The anti-China sentiment is now the primary fuel of Donald Trump’s re-election effort. The pandemic strengthened the state and reinforced nationalism. Criticism of the apparent lack of solidarity among EU member states went beyond the bloc’s own borders to countries hoping to one day join.

In Serbia, a candidate for EU membership, conservative President Aleksandar Vučić seized on a March 2020 EU decision to block exports of key medical equipment to countries on the bloc’s periphery as evidence of a lack of care, while rolling out the red carpet for aid and assistance arriving from China.

“The crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic shows once again that the European Union is unable to function and that the values on which it is based are absent in practice,” said Dragana Trifkovic, chair of the foreign affairs committee of the far-right opposition party Dveri. Even German chancellor Angela Merkel who was the mother of globalism banned exports of protective medical equipment like masks that were supposed to be shipped to its neighbouring EU – member countries. A bigger dispute between countries occurred after President Donald Trump attempted to persuade CureVac which is one of the leading firms in trying to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 to move from Germany to the United States of America. This led to fears among the German government and German nationals that the United States was trying to get exclusive access to a possible treatment. China’s government has initially started working hard and turned Covid-19, first detected in Wuhan in November, into a national success story and started offering assistance to Italy and other badly affected countries. This should be a great example for other countries of the world. In times of danger, people tend to get closer to their co-ethnics. By doing so, they expect more help and are more willing to share scarce resources with their tribe-whether it is family, a community or their countrymen. It of course works the same way with the Corona Virus pandemic. Some central governments are understandably not happy with such developments like feeling endangered by a rapid increase of mobility and independence in ethnic minority groups or regions. For instance, when the Russian Republic of Chechnya, a Russian region with a long history of the separatist movement, decided to stop all transportation from entering the republic, it led to conflict with Moscow. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin complained of local leaders overstepping their authority in closing borders. According to the prime minister, only Moscow as a central government had the right to make that decision. It’s sad that Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov had to publicly defend his choice, highlighting that his actions were necessary to protect one of the regions of Russia and the Russian citizens living in that region. This intentional signal of loyalty to the central government was meant to keep him out of hot water, something he should not be concerned with when protecting a republic for which he is responsible for . But in fact, in a crisis like the pandemic, central governments should exercise caution when trying to control ethnic minorities. By doing so, they would ultimately be the ones blamed for the death of countless loved ones-a very dangerous development for central governments in unstable regions. If multi-ethnic countries do not consider the well-being of their ethnic minorities, this pandemic could trigger the reemergence of independence movements and armed conflict. Viruses know no borders. By definition, a pandemic is a global crisis. One of the only ways to properly fight them is through global collaboration. But with the terrifying spread of Covid-19 throughout the world, nationalism, rather than internationalism, is shaping the world. Each country is dealing with the crisis on its own, and in their own ways. Countries are stocking most medical supplies and limiting their exports. National leaders are blaming migrants for bringing the virus to their shores. People are even turning on their fellow citizens, as Asians face racist attacks in many countries like the United States though they are good citizens of the USA. This threatens to further destabilize an already unstable international order. Over the past few weeks, the world has seen the further deterioration of relations between the worlds’ leading powers, the United States and China, as they descend into a conspiracy over which one is probably responsible for causing the pandemic. During times of crisis, nationalism can quickly become very apparent. This is because it provides people with a powerful mechanism for channeling their fears and anxieties or emotions that are running high in the wake of Covid-19. Nationalism provides a roadmap for dealing with these feelings. Nationalism provides the necessary sense of community. We know this from looking back at history. Most often nationalism rises during war and economic hardships. Probably that is the reason why politicians have been quick to talk about our response to the pandemic as a war against an invading enemy.

Governments of all types will adopt emergency measures to manage the crisis, and many will be loath to relinquish these new powers when the crisis is over. I honestly do understand that the situation is so hard that the countries of the world are blaming one another for what has happened and is happening around the world but I also believe that in times like this these countries especially the superpowers must stand united and help one another instead of blaming the pandemic on one another which is a waste of time. “In short, Covid-19 will create a world that is less open, less prosperous and less free.” The world will in my opinion be a scary place to live in for some people and for some it will be an amazing place to live in. We all have different ideas and want to achieve different things and politics works exactly the same way. Governments basically use Covid-19 to achieve their goals or interests or to divert the minds of citizens from real problems that exist in the country. We see this in many countries as I have mentioned in some of my sentences above. I think the best way is to just observe and wait what happens next. Hope that one day all these countries of the world will be united and there will be no more nationalism because globalism is something that I personally support. Humanity is undoubtedly going through one of the biggest crises in recent human history. While the death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic is (so far) small when compared to some of the other pandemics that humanity has faced, the world has come to a near standstill with countries shutting down one-by-one and then asking their people to isolate themselves at home.

Conclusion:

As the current pandemic will create a global readiness for future similar crises, it will highlight the basic role of the State in preparation and organizing efforts, whether at a national or multilateral level, to meet the global security threats of health. At a political level, it intensifies most of the existing political tensions, as countries are more anxious and grow into the national tendencies of domestic productions. In the case of the European Union, Italy objected to its member States with an inadequate response while countries in the Schengen region in Europe established their borders again.

Covid-19 looks like a ‘bent but breaking crisis’ for globalization. International streams, but globalization and opposition to globalization, will create business opportunities and challenges. Careful attention to globalization of future drivers can help companies navigate through and even profit from globalization turbulence. The world of partially connected national economies extends the possibilities for global strategy even as it manages complex of multinational corporations. Now is the time for global companies to show off their value by exploiting the world’s best capabilities to end up pandemic and boost enhancement.

Finally, the Government’s response to the threat of fragile democracies becomes competitive authoritarian regimes. Such competitive authoritarian regimes may initially be relied on all-out to justify repressive policies, but will likely become exclusive nationalism as an ideology key to maintaining power.

There is nothing inevitable about the unique nationalism mastery in the world after all-consuming, as there are some doomsayers, national, and far right figures. At a critical juncture, different routes are available and the result depends on the language used and the choice of policies created during the crisis.