Power Shift: US awol from world stage as China tries on global leadership for size

When the UN security council and the G7 group sought to agree a global response to the coronavirus pandemic, the efforts stumbled on the US insistence on describing the threat as distinctively Chinese.

There are other reasons for the lack of collaboration in the face of a global crisis, but the focus on labelling the virus Chinese and blaming China pursued by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, helped ensure there would be no meaningful collective response from the world’s most powerful nations.

For some US allies, the fixation on words at a time when the international order was arguably facing its greatest challenge since the second world war encapsulated the glaring absence of US leadership.

Read more at; US awol from world stage as China tries on global leadership for size | Coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian

New Global Order Ranking: Power, equality, nationalism: how the pandemic will reshape the world

The global impact of the coronavirus pandemic poses a fundamental question: is this one of those historic moments when the world changes permanently, when the balance of political and economic power shifts decisively, and when, for most people, in most countries, life is never quite the same again?

Put more simply, is this the end of the world as we know it? And, equally, could the crisis mark a new beginning?

Genuinely pivotal global moments, watersheds or turning points (pick your own terminology) are actually quite rare. Yet if the premise is correct – that there can be no return to the pre-Covid-19 era – then it poses many unsettling questions about the nature of the change, and whether it will be for better or worse.

Some analysts see grounds for optimism, for example in beneficial environmental effects in northern Italy and China. Countries hitherto at odds, such as Iran and the UAE, are cooperating, at least temporarily. In the Philippines, the crisis prompted a ceasefire with Communist rebels. Global interdependence and the importance of collective, multilateral approaches have been vividly underscored.

After early blunders, China’s government is working hard to turn Covid-19, first detected in Wuhan in November, into a national success story. It claims draconian measures to suppress the disease have largely worked. Now, by offering assistance to Italy and other badly affected countries, China is reinforcing its credentials as a global leader. The virus has become a soft power tool to overtake its superpower rival, the US.

Read more at: Power, equality, nationalism: how the pandemic will reshape the world | World news | The Guardian

Global power shift

Throughout history a pattern has been established in which major shifts in economic power are followed by, or go hand-in-hand with, shifts in military power and/or dominance. Developments following in the wake of the sex-scandal that has engulfed the International Monetary Fund managing director underline that the world is presently again experiencing such a ground-shift.

European leaders have dropped strong hints that they would not tolerate a new head of the IMF from outside the continent as the scandal around Dominique Strauss-Kahn sparked speculation about his potential successor – speculation that include South Africa’s previous minister of finance, Trevor Manuel.

For many decades the tradition has been that a European runs the IMF and an American deputises to him and gets the top job at the World Bank. Among the 24 directors of the IMF count nine from Europe, while the American member’s vote counts four times and the vote of the Brazilian director, who represents nine countries, carries only a 2.4% weight.

This dispensation however, is part of an economic order that is no longer a reflection of the realities of the global economy. For one, not only does the United States battle with a missive debt burden, but the majority of that debt is held by China, who analysts expect to flex its muscles to get a candidate from one of the emerging economies appointed to the IMF position.

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