For over a year now, Covid-19 and its effects have taken centre-stage in the life of people around the world. From day-to-day private matters to big decisions of international politics and the global economy, few things are left unchanged by the pandemic. It has uncovered the extreme interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of our globalized era. So how has “the world” fared in managing this challenge? Have we succeeded in cooperating globally to overcome this crisis, and what does our response to this one tell us about any challenges of the future, such as the climate change emergency?

To our first guest on “Cooperadio”, Professor Thomas Hale of Oxford University, the Coronavirus pandemic is a “wake-up call to the weakness of our current efforts in cooperation and the need to strengthen them to anticipate the crises to come.” It has demonstrated just how unprepared the international system is to deal with such fundamentally transnational threats and exposed once more the problematic effects of (overt or covert) nationalism and national self-interest.

With show host Professor Jan Aart Scholte, he discusses different actors' and institutions' potential for managing the global crises of the 21st century. They look, among other things, at how the pandemic challenges our preconception of the appropriateness of states intervening in societies for “the greater public good”, and what lessons we can draw from this for the analysis of global governance in the future.

In our ‘Research Feature’ segment we talk to Alena Drieschova about her work on Representants and International Orders and about how international politics can be witnessed in our everyday lives.

Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

02:43 - Interview with Thomas Hale

22:33 - Research Feature: Alena Drieschova

You can find more information on our website. 

If you have feedback or questions for us, we look forward to your comments to our twitter account @GCR_21 via the hashtag #cooperadiopodcast or you can get in touch via e-mail: cooperadio@gcr21.uni-due.de. 

If you have any questions for Thomas, follow him on twitter: @thomasnhale or find out more about his work on his University of Oxford website. The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker is available on this site.

For further info on Alena‘s work see her personal website.