Cascading effect of COVID-19: de-globalisation and its impact on global governance

ABSTRACT

Just as the multifaceted cascading effect of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has impinged significantly on individual daily life, its impact on globalisation has been no less profound. From its roots in China, the pandemic has swiftly created a chain reaction around the world as the greater interdependence of the global community has taken its toll. This article takes the position that the COVID-19 pandemic is trending towards a de-globalisation of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised serious rethinking on many aspects of social culture such as health care and human-to-human interactions. But global governance has been severely impacted, and this is profound in great power competition, geo-economics, and maritime governance. This essay is structured in three parts. The first explores the impacts of COVID-19 on globalisation, the second looks at how the ‘de-coupling' of the United States – China nexus has ramifications on existing international systems, the reorientation of the world economy and supply chains, and de-globalisation of maritime governance, and the third discusses why these impacts have implications for global openness. De-globalisation has its consequences and is a matter of concern because the impact changes the world into an inward-looking and highly nationalistic and a non-inclusive.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Accessing the Fallout from the Coronavirus Pandemic (2020). J.P.Morgan. 23rd March. https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/research/coronavirus-impact

2 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)https://asean.org/?static_post=rcep-regional-comprehensive-economic-partnership

3 Si, Katherine. (2020) Sea Trade Maritime News. 11 December. Retrieved from. https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/ports-logistics/container-volume-major-chinese-ports-37-late-november

4 Country Profile. China. (2020) Monitoring Response to Covid-19 Along the Regional Transport Network. 27 April. Retrieved from https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/China-monitoring-response-to-COVID-19.pdf

5 World Bank Report (2020). October. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eap/publication/east-asia-pacific-economic-update

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sumathy Permal

Sumathy Permal is a Fellow and Head of Centre for Straits of Malacca, with the Maritime Institute of Malaysia. Sumathy Permal is on the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Maritime & Ocean Affairs Australia and Associate Member of the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies. She is a Professional Fellow On- Demand Exchange Program by the U.S. Department of State for Think-Tank in Asia.