Global reset: COVID-19, systemic rivalry and the global order
Michael Dunford, Bing Qi
Abstract
The rise of China was closely associated with the strategic opportunity offered by a wave of globalization dating from the 1970s. As China grew, western growth was not restored. Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the arrival of the unipolar moment, the world confronted a succession of crises that western countries struggled to handle. In this world in which China's continuing rise was already perceived as a strategic challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic was met with further examples of liberal capitalist governance failure. Notwithstanding attempts to preserve western hegemony and a western liberal world order, the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate and intensify existing trends towards a global reset, a shift in the centre of economic gravity to Asia, the arrival of a multipolar world and new global development paths.