THE GRAND CHESSBOARD IN THE AGE OF COVID-19: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL POLITICS

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By Ayush Mazumdar 20 April 2020

The transition of a phantasmagoric vision into reality and the resultant onslaught of a challenge beyond human imagination is charging ahead. This is a nightmare for human existence as 140,000 human beings have faded into oblivion while trying to grapple with the enigma of a pandemic. This is a kind of combat where the human population is fighting for the continuation of their community, and the enemy cannot be defined by conventional strategic norms of warfare. It is a kind of enemy that cannot be tackled by conventional hard power. This is the aeon of COVID-19.

This is the age where the soldiers are wearing stethoscopes, gloves, and masks. A war between nation-states can be avoided through diplomatic maneuver and negotiation between hostile parties or by the action of the UNSC. However, even the global giants are facing a challenge threatening their position. Nuclear weapons, economic growth, anti-ballistic missile, etc. is a no-brainer in this context. There is no one to negotiate with to avert this crisis. The only panacea to this crisis lies in forging a treatment that can save millions of lives, and the scramble for such an elixir has started an aggressive maneuver among divergent players ranging from nation-states to transnational players.

The question that evolves is how this global phenomenon of such an enormous proportion will shape up things for times to come. The process of deconstruction of global politics becomes very crucial at this point to understand the evolving global setup. International politics is synonymous with power, and according to a realist vision, the nation-state is the supreme power. Therefore, the analysis of global politics in the light of the current pandemic must be made in the milieu of nation-states interacting with each other. Two significant powers in this global structure of pandemic are China and the USA. The fons et origo of COVID-19 pandemic is the Wuhan City of Hubei Province of China, where this virus first took its root and strode to the rest of the world. The Chinese authority has been able to manage things within their cordon with increasing cases, drastically reducing in number and the rate of fatality becoming negligible in comparison to the other affected regions of the world.

The United States of America, the sole superpower rising from the ashes of World War II and championing the end of the Cold War, is facing a crisis of Brobdingnagian proportions. The United States of America is currently top of the list with the highest number of affected people (678,210) from the virus and also in terms of fatality (34,641). The EU powers (Italy, Germany, Spain, etc.) are taking huge tolls too in terms of active cases around 1,016,209 cases and fatality rates of around 92,258 people. The United Kingdom is reeling with a crisis also. The survival and relevance of a post-Brexit EU depend upon how it can tackle the ongoing epidemic. They are the erstwhile colonial powers who ruled and shaped the global order for a long time. With the end of the World War, their sway over international affairs became insignificant due to the rise ascent of the USA and USSR. However, the end of the Cold war and the death of the USSR made USA the sole superpower and propelled China to a status of significance. Hence, it is of utmost importance to enquire whether there would be any significant reversal of power when the blitzkrieg march of COVID-19 comes to an end.

A theoretical analysis of the current situation closely proximate the representation of a simulacrum where theory and imagination create an illustration of the cinematic reality of the actuality of existing things. It represents the cinematic world of Seventh Seal constructed by the ingenuity of Ingmar Bergman. The current trend of global politics is like that of a game of chess between two players. Hence, the situation manifests the “The Grand Chessboard,” where the two players, the Knight and the Death, are engaged in a battle of chess for survival. The bluff from a great power during the foetal period of the pandemic, the frolicking of Taiwan against WHO, the narrative generation by South Asian powers with the accreditation of World Economic Forum to successfully tackling the ongoing pandemic in the medley of geopolitics on the line of analysis propounded by John J. Mearsheimer and Robert D. Kaplan stressing on the ineludible reality of geopolitics to determine a nation’s power projection and global maneuver capability indicate appurtenant moves in the Grand Chessboard?

In Gandhian parlance, both the Knight and the Death signifies violence. If violence is the ultimate result of the game, is there no other option? Why do the pawns have to be the pawns in the design of the Grand Chessboard? Why can’t there be an order of peace among the pawns? Why do they have to die for the sake of saving the Knight from the Death? If the pawns don’t decimate other pawns, doesn’t Death become nugatory?

Therefore, the dawn of a post-COVID-19 global order is up for rumination. Global challenges like climate change, terrorism, and pandemics require global conduct by nation-states. However, what that global order would define our response in times to come. This pandemic has provided a prospect of nation-states arising from the remnants of the preceding rule of the thumb power structuring by certain players to a world order based on the principles of democracy and multi-polarity. The evolving contemporary pandemic can only be approached through a global coalition of nation-states.

Post-COVID world order cannot be a place for violence but for introspection and enquiry as to what array of structure it would like to construct. Nevertheless, questions abound because would it or how far it would help create an inclusive, compassionate global order if we get stuck in this divertissement remains. Because without such radical change, global order would continue largely the same, if not further deteriorated due to the compounded COVID -19 shock and the order of peace and development comprising the citizenry of the global order would remain a yearning forever.