Data Driven Pandemic and the Ascendancy of Simulated Reality as the New Political Space: The Administration of Disease and the Disease of Administration in the Light of COVID-19

(From Ontological Modeling of Geographical Relationships for Map Generalization)

In The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society 1250-1600 (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Alfred W. Crosby summarized the arc of 350 years of development this way:

Beginning in the miraculous decades  around the turn of the fourteenth century (decades unmatched  in their radical changes in perception until the era of Einstein and Picasso), and continuing on for generations, * * * Western Europeans evolved a new way, more purely visual and quantitative than the old, of perceiving time, space and material environment. * * * In practical terms, the new approach was simply this: reduce what you are trying to think about to the minimum required by its definition; visualize it on paper, or at least in your mind, be it the fluctuation of wool prices at the Champagne fairs or the course of Mars through the heavens, and divide it, either in fact or in imagination, into equal quanta. Then you can measure it. * * * Then you posses a quantitative representation of your subject that is, however simplified, even in its errors and omissions, precise. You can think about it rigorously.  You can manipulate it and experiment with it, as we do today with computer models. (Ibid., 227, 228-229)

The trajectories of what Alfred Crosby called "The  New Model" of perceiving the "mysteries of reality" and, thus perceived, of rationalizing these mysteries within them (Ibid. 239), has continued in fits and starts through to the current age. It has marked the entirety of the organization of human institutions as much as it has shaped the current forms of its perceptions of itself especially the the art of modelling--of rendering reality in abstract space drawn from data (e.g., Building Better Models). In the process it has transformed time, space, and the way we mark them, and with that the world around us. The trajectories, however have changed. What through the seventeenth century had been  a means for rationalizing the world around us, by the 20th century had now inverted the relationship between reality and perception. When what is perceived becomes real, reality is relevant only as a means of accountability, as a check on the viability of perception itself. That, of course, has produced a powerful philosophical reaction in the 20th century from an engagement with the nature of phenomena (Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenolog (§9 Galileo's Mathematization of Nnature)) and later to its political manifestation (Habermas). 

COVID-19 has now exposed the extent to which those inversions have come fully to government at last. The pandemic has now exposed as well the way in the perception of politics and human organization, its reality is shaped, understood, and controlled through quantitative representation. CVID-19 has now also exposed the extent to which, whatever the lingering elements of the post 1945 era ancien regime intelligentsia suggest otherwise, the reality of politics is being manifested as the product of a perception of data that produces a managed simulation of the world in which it seeks to control. Modelling is the way we create these simulacra and through that creation creates for itself a more prominent role in the political management of human affairs. The character of that role is not as a tool of politics but as politics itself.  That, in essence (and we deal almost entirely now in a world that operates by reducing objects to its essence and then layering those reduced essences into models of reality), is what COVID-19 has revealed in 2020.

What follows are short reflections of the implications revealed by an ascendancy of data driven Pandemic; likely the most important legacy of COVID-19. Its effects have touched virtually every aspect of collective life.

Shasha Li: Commentary on "Zhao Hong, 'Limitation and Boundary of Individual Rights under Pandemic Prevention and Control Measures'" 赵 宏 疫情防控下个人的权利限缩与边界

Over the course of the last several years, Chinese scholars have been engaging in a very interesting discussion about the way that constitutional sensitivities to human rights affects Chinese law and practice in a number f areas. The conversation intensified after 2004 when the State Constitution was amended to include a third paragraph in its Article 33 that provides: "The State respects and preserves human rights."

This year I have the great privilege of hosting a marvelous visiting scholar from China, Shasha Li. Professor Li is an Associate Professor of Law School of Dongbei University of Finance and Economics. She obtained her Bachelor of Law from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, her Master of Law at Nankai University; ad her Doctor of Law at Jilin University. Professor Li may be contacted at fishsuncat [AT] 126.com.

I have prevailed on Professor Li to offer readers in English a glimpse at some of the rich discussion among academics who are considering the application of principles of human rights with Chinese characteristics and compatible with the Chinese political and normative system. Earlier Commentary may be accessed: first Commentary (HERE); Second Commentary (HERE ); third Commentary (HERE).

For her fourth commentary, Professor Li considers Zhao Hong (赵 宏), Limitation and boundary of individual rights under epidemic prevention and control (疫情防控下个人的权利限缩与边界) which was just recently published in "Research on Comparative Law", Issue 2, 2020 (《比较法研究》2020年第2期). The author is Professor of Law at the China University of Political Science and Law, and was a visiting scholar at the University of Munich, Germany. Research for the article was funded through the "China University of Political Science and Law Excellent Young and Middle-aged Teacher Training Support Plan." The article abstract lays the issues out quite clearly:

Abstract: The whole country has entered an emergency state for the prevention and control of new coronavirus. In this context, individual rights are restricted due to laws and regulations such as the Infectious Disease Prevention Law, the Emergency Response Law, and the Emergency Regulations for Public Health Emergencies. The restricted rights include, in particular, the personal freedom, property rights and management autonomy of individuals. But even for public welfare purposes based on epidemic prevention and control, the restriction of individual rights by public authorities is not unlimited. The power limitation measures under the state of emergency are restricted by many principles such as legal reservations, the principle of proportionality, the prohibition of improper connection, and the protection of core rights, and these restrictions ultimately point to the protection of individual human dignity. These restrictions constitute the boundary of the contraction of individual rights under epidemic prevention and control, and at the same time ensure that the anti-epidemic work can be carried out in an orderly manner under the rule of law, ensuring that the rights of individuals subject to epidemic prevention and control are not subject to contraction, and eventually will not evolve into their complete exclusion and hollowing out of rights. (摘 要：全国目前已进入防控新冠病毒的应急状态。在此背景下，个体权利因为《传染病防治法》、《突发事件应对法》、《突发公共卫生事件应急条例》等法律法规的规定而受到限缩。受到限缩的权利尤其包括个体的人身自由、财产权和经营自主权等。但即使是基于疫情防控的公益目的，公权机关对个体的权利限制也并非毫无限度。应急状态下的限权措施受到法律保留、比例原则、禁止不当联结以及核心权利保障等诸多原则的限制，而这些限制最终都指向对个体人性尊严的保障。这些限制构成了疫情防控下个体权利收缩的边界，也同时确保了抗疫工作能够在法治框架下有序进行，确保了个体因为疫情防控而受到的权利限缩，最终不致演变为对其权利的彻底排除和掏空。)

Here one finds one of the more delicate questions for law and politics of this new era.   We know how the balancing ought to be undertaken in a pre-pandemic world.  If the weighing of factors has now changed so we understand the principles under which that revaluation of our values has been undertaken?  Certainly there was little discussion and no debate.  Instead there were metrics and probabilities and a sense, whose parameters were unstated about the value fo life (singular and aggregate) as a function of the life of the community. For these the traditional methods of evaluation appear to be as challenging in China as they are proving to be in the West.

Professor Li's English language Commentary follows below along with the original article (Chinese language only; English language Abstract).

Birgit Spiesshofer: "Fridays for Future, Siemens or the Australian Government - who decides?" English Translation of Article published first (in German) in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazine Einspruch! (online) 16 March 2020

 

 (Birgit Spiesshofer)

Dr. Birgit Spiesshofer has been undertaking truly important and path-breaking work in the area of the responsibility of business for harms that may be attached (that, of course, is the issue of the moment, that is the jurisprudence of "attachment") to the economic activities of enterprises and persons.  Her  monograph, Responsible Enterprise: The Emergence of a Global Economic Order (Munich: CH Beck, Oxford, Hart, 2018), is a remarkable analysis of the "state of the legal art" in this field and an excellent basis for thinking about the paths already being carved out for going forward (for my review of this work, see "The Enterprise of Responsibility:" Reviewing Birgit Spiesshofer, "Responsible Enterprise). 

Dr. Spiesshofer also writes frequently for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazine Einspruch! (online) on themes of corporate governance, sustainability, and its inevitable relations to systems of trade and political governance across borders. Though these essays are produced for a German audience, she has kindly agreed to translate some of them for re-publication here. Earlier translations include (1) Birgit Spiesshofer: "Green monetary policy - "whatever it takes"?" English Translation of Article published first (in German) in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazine Einspruch! (online) 10 December 2019; (2) Birgit Spiesshofer: "What is "sustainable"?" English Translation of Article published first (in German) in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazine Einspruch! (online) July 24, 2019 (see also here).

Siemens Won't Drop Australian Coal Mine Contract Despite Pressure 

From Greta Thunberg

Dr. Spiesshofer has now agreed to the translation of a recent essay-- Fridays for Future, Siemens or the Australian Government - who decides? , published originally in German in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazine Einspruch! (online).  The essay considers an important issue that touches both on the management of global production chains, and on the rationalization of corporate human rights and sustainability responsibilities. At the center of these issues, nowhere near consensus or resolution with any confidence virtually everywhere, is the interplay between legal and social licenses to operate.  The notion of a social license is not new though it has proven to be an elastic concept (e.g., here), especially in the context of extractive activities.  Its prominence increased as it was embedded as a key concept within the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (2011; esp. Principle 11 Commentary) notion of corporate responsibility to respect human rights (connecting notions of human rights due diligence in the Second Pillar to a social license to operate. (Business and Human Rights: Towards Operationalizing the ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework, Report to the UN Human Rights Council (Business and Human Rights Report), UN Doc. A/HRC/11/13, 22 April 2009, para. 46 ("Companies know they must comply with all applicable laws to obtain and sustain their legal license to operate. However, over time companies have found that legal compliance alone may not ensure their social license to operate, particularly where the law is weak. The social license to operate is based in prevailing social norms that can be as important to a business’ success as legal norms."), also here).  The issue is nicely framed in the essay and provides an important entry point for discussion here about convergence of law and governance even within the governance order of a developed state. 

The essay and Dr. Spiesshofer's brief bio follow. 

Text of President Trump's Executive Order on Immigration, "Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Present a Risk to the United States Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the 2019 Novel CoronaVirus Outbreak" Signed 22 April 2020

I have been thinking about the expected Executive Order that President Trump announced on Monday 20 April (I have been thinking about the expected Executive Order that President Trump announced on Monday 20 April (The (Re)Construction of Borders After COVID-19: President Trump And the Intention to Suspend Immigration to the United States).

The focus was not on migration as a normative or moral issue, or as the implementation of those normative and moral positions through law.  These aspects of migration, of course, have managed to absorb practically all of the attention of generations of lawyers and policy makers who have come to view the issues as essentially and permanently centered on their construction of the ideal migrant (that is on the foundational narrative of migration from which principal, norm and morals may be extracted and converted into law. 

Rather, my focus was on the de-centering of this once unassailable discursive trope (though a powerful one as already suggested), a de-centering accelerated in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is, that migration itself was a consequential rather than a primary object of normative and moral constructions.  Migration was the means through which principles of efficiency, principles of welfare, and principles of production might be rationalized, in combination with the other important productive forces necessary to ensure the economic well being of a community.This has been one way of understanding the Trump administration's approach to migration, as well as the source of its antipathy to the old orthodoxy of open borders and unconstrained migration of individuals and peoples.  In place of a baseline of rights to movement without reference to borders, Mr. Trump. like others, thought to re-frame the discussion from the individual to the border, and from the migrant to the receiving community. COVID-19 provided the necessary acceleration to move that discursive battle  to regulatory reform. A concession that borders could be used to manage the inflow and outflow of people provides a basis for extending that principle.

All of this is much in evidence in the text of the Executive Order, "Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Present a Risk to the United States Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the 2019 Novel CoronaVirus Outbreak" Signed 22 April 2020.  Note the language of the introductory paragraphs.  It speaks to the centrality of mitigation--the language of risk aversion.  That principle of mitigation is activated at and through borders--which are permeable but not open. Mitigation, however, is a principle that may be transposed from the context of disease to that of diseases of the economic system.  Just below the surface is the analogy that as the COVID-19 virus is to individuals, the immigrant is to the body of the American economy.  In both cases the virus--the infection of the body, or the body politic, must be confronted and its damage mitigated. Just as there is no way to protect the individual body against the ravages of COVID-19, "There is no way to protect already disadvantaged and unemployed Americans from the threat of competition for scarce jobs from new lawful permanent residents by directing those new residents to particular economic sectors with a demonstrated need not met by the existing labor supply." (EXECUTIVE ORDER PREAMBLE).

PIX: Trump signs order pausing immigration for 60 days, with exceptions

But not all people are affected by the virus in the same way; it is just the most vulnerable who succumb.  The same parallelism is drawn to the virus of migration, whose effects, especially during times of pandemic, are felt by those least able to resist its deleterious effects. "In recent years, these workers have been disproportionately represented by historically disadvantaged groups, including African Americans and other minorities, those without a college degree, and the disabled." (EXECUTIVE ORDER). And yet there must be an accommodation especially where the disease does not produce permanent harm.  And so there must be a distinction between permanent migration, and the temporary residence of foreigners who will eventually leave after contributing positively to the economic life of the Republic (in return of course for the benefits to them of that residence). Where an individual enters the US for the purpose of contributing to production--like a sum of capital, or an investment, or raw materials--borders continue to be managed but open, the way they are for goods, investment and capital.  But where that individual can no longer be viewed as a specifically utilized factor of production, then the border becomes noticeably harder.

This is the narrative--a narrative of borders, of managed permeability, of free movement of workers for the purpose of work, but an interdiction of others seeking to join the body politic on a more permanent basis--this is the narrative that permeates the morality, the normative orientation, and the policy of the present Administration, it flows seamlessly from and through pandemic.  It is a plausible response.  But at the same time it represents a rupture in the way that Americans had been taught to think about migration--its fundamental reality-making premises--that is likely to produce a substantial and quite energetic response. Indeed, for those embracing the old orthodoxy, there can be no sense in it (e.g., Opinion: "No, Mr. President, Your Immigration Powers Are Not Unlimited," New York Times  22 April 2020). In place of the ideal immigrant, there is now a useful factor in the production of the welfare of the state. That is the essence of the heart of the Executive order--not the suspension of permanent migration--but the substantial list of exception in Section 2(b). Humanitarianism will move to the margins; it will not disappear.  But at the same time it will no longer serve as the founding premise of policy (at least until and unless there is a change in national political leadership).

The text of the Executive Order follows; courtesy of CNN:

The Legalization of Politics and the Politics of Law in the Shadow of COVID-19--Missouri Sues China; Congress Considers the "‘Holding the Chinese Communist Party Accountable for Infecting Americans Act of 2020’"

COVID-19 has again exposed the power of the space, which marks the confines of the legalization of politics, the judicialization of political contests around fundamental issues of morals, ethics, social norms, and international relations.  Two current actions in the United States serve as useful illustrations.  The first is the filing of a lawsuit in federal court by the Governor of Missouri against the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party and other organs (Missouri v, People's Republic of China).  The second is an effort to amend federal law to permit such suits recently filed for consideration in the U.S. Senate (‘‘Holding the Chinese Communist Party Accountable for Infecting Americans Act of 2020’’). The first invokes courts to paint China as a reckless tortfeasor; the second layers over that the narrative of criminal enterprise. These may not work as law but they represent powerful mechanisms to control the narrative of pandemic.  The power of the courts to shape narrative within the United States ought not to be underestimated.

To understand the function of law, one must first understand the cultural basis of juridical authority.* * * It is only in this culturally prophetic sense that courts exist as the place for the struggles and contestations which may produce cultural movement. In this arena, "losing" arguments are also articulated and memorialized. Thus produced, the prophetic find their way back into nonjudicial social discourse. In this function, and in this function only, might courts indirectly serve as a means of cultural movement. ("Chroniclers in the Field of Cultural Production: Courts, Law and the Interpretive Process; pp. 293-94).

The text of both and some brief reflections follow. Those reflections focus on the cultural significance of the judicial organs in the United States and their use in the battle to "control" or "make" the definitive narrative about this pandemic.  But in reality, all of this is merely a warm up to the main event--a potential legal action against China before an international tribunal.

The (Re)Construction of Borders After COVID-19: President Trump And the Intention to Suspend Immigration to the United States

As is his habit, around 10 PM on a Monday night, the President of the United States announced an intention to significantly modify, if only on a temporary basis, the administration of the migration policy of the United States.

There were no details given.  But that was enough.  The avalanche of speculation began almost immediately. They were revealing, but mostly of the political, and ideological positions of members of the academic-consultant-influencer complex which drives politics (and politics through law) in the 21st century in the United States.

This post considers this action, not in its technical sense (e.g., can the President actually impose his will through Executive Order, the legalities of implementation, and the conformity of those acts with "policy" embedded in national law and our constitutional order?).  Those technical approaches are the means by which lawyers are capable of understanding and the language they impose on authoritative responses to systemic challenges.  Instead I consider the way in which these actions fit into the larger picture, that is that way that this Presidential intention may point to the longer term consequences for social organization the COVID-19 both reveals and make possible. 

The COVID-19 Accelerator Effect: The Situation in Hong Kong and the Virtual Conflict Between the United States and China

(Pix from New York Times HERE)

(Pix Wikimedia)

Like others, I recently noted ("Will COVID-19 infect the world order?") that the COVID-19 pandemic has provided a cover or a portal or an excuse, or a convenient nodal point (depending on thew perspective one chooses to view events) for the acceleration of transformations (but not their genesis), the trajectories of which were already clear.  For those starting from this premise, then, COVID-19, then, has not been used to make meaning; rather it has served as the prism through which  that meaning acquires a more complex coloring.

Nowhere is this made clearer than at the borderlands of emerging post-global Empires (CPE EmpireSeries). Those borderlands can be abstract (as in the territorialization of global production chains built on the hub-and-spoke-model of America First or China's Belt and Road Initiative).  Or it can be evidenced in forays at the physical frontiers of Imperial domains. These are neither natural nor inevitable spaces (real or virtual; concrete or abstract).  Rather they are point along a continuum chosen because they appear to signal a weak point in the construction of the protective boundaries that are being constructed to define and separate one Imperial system from another.

For all kinds of reasons, Hong Kong has appeared to serve such a purpose. More importantly, since the start of 2020, Hong Kong has also proven to be an important site from which one can observe the character of the COVID-19 accelerator effect. The convergence and the likely consequences of these post-global imperial system conflicts in Hong Kong (here understood as a physical territory and as an abstract space that itself stands for competing narratives of order and of historical progression), accelerated by pandemic, has moved to another stage in the wake of the April 2020 arrests of Hong Kong opposition figures by the authorities (e.g., Amid Pandemic, Hong Kong Arrests Major Pro-Democracy Figures). 

More than a dozen leading pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers in Hong Kong were arrested on Saturday in connection with the protests that raged in the city last year, the biggest roundup of prominent opposition figures in recent memory. * * * The high-profile arrests were made as Hong Kong battled to contain the coronavirus outbreak, which has helped quiet down the huge street protests but fueled further distrust of the authorities. The virus has halted protests around the world, forcing people to stay home and giving the authorities new laws for limiting public gatherings and detaining people with less fear of public blowback while many residents remained under lockdowns or observing limits on their movement. (Amid Pandemic, Hong Kong Arrests Major Pro-Democracy Figures).)

This post briefly considers the recent arrests of important figures in the conflicts in Hong Kong. The object is to suggest how these arrests provide a window on one of the more important consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic--its power to act as an accelerator.

Just Posted: Video Recording of Conference-Roundtable "Coronavirus and International Affairs"

I am delighted to post a recording of the online Conference-Roundtable, "Coronavirus and International Affairs" along with links to the conference website and contributor interviews.

The Conference was held this past Friday 17 April 2020 from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm via the magic of Zoom.   The Conference brought together academics, researchers and others from China, the U.S., Cuba, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Israel.  The exchanges and interventions nicely framed both the baselines from which transformations might be discerned and from them to the shape  of  those changes.  Of course, this was not an oracular exercise; our object was neither to conjecture nor to use the magic of modelling to propose any detailed account of the future of history post COVID-19.  Rather, we worked together to begin to weave, from the testing of our individual and contextual perspectives, what might be a more useful broader basis for approaching the investigation of what may lie ahead from what is being forged today in the heath that is COVID-19.

 

The VIDEO RECORDING OF THE CONFERENCE may be accessed HERE (because f technical difficulties, Pini Miretski contribution here)

Participant and Contributor Interviews (CPE YouTube Channel): 

Conference Concept Note HERE

Conference Website HERE. 

Interview: Bethany Salgado COVID-19, Covid-19, Supply Chains, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, for Upcoming Webinar "COVID-19 and International Affairs" (17 April 2020)

In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist.

For our first interview, Flora Sapio spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our second interview, Larry Catá Backer spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. Yuri Gonzalez was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state.  Alice Hong provided insight on COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student in the US. GAO Shan spoke to the way that the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative context of Wuhan (where his family lives) and the US Midwest (where he now resides).  Keren Wang considered the ways in which each system framed the pandemic in ways that could be understood, noting how differences in those understandings could produce very different responses. Jonathan Kiwana spoke to issues of COVID-19 and Africa, focusing on Uganda and the region.  Pini Miretski spoke to the situation in Russia, Israel and states of the former Soviet Union, and the enhanced use of technology for meeting the challenge of COVID-19.  And Nicolas Scholz spoke to the situation in Germany, from the perspective of a European federal republic, within the historical context of European shocks of the last century and on the contradictions of nationalism and globalization.

For our next interview, Bethany Salgado speaks to issues of the challenges of COVID-19 for business with particular focus on the consumer products industry. She considered COVID-19's effects on supply chains, on supply chain diversification, and on the possibility of returning supply chains "home." Lastly she spoke about business and human rights in two respects: the first was relating to corporate responsibility for the integrity and welfare of stakeholders in its supply chain; the second touched on the responsibility of enterprises for worker protection in the form of PPE and obligations to sanitize workplaces.  

Bethany Salgado currently works in demand planning and customer logistics within the consumer products industry while she is completing her master's in international affairs at Pennsylvania State University. During her graduate program, Bethany has focused on corporate governance and responsible business conduct in addition to attaining a certificate in supply chain management. Prior to starting her graduate degree, Bethany worked at the State Department where she helped U.S. companies implement best practices for social and environmental responsibility across global supply chains. She also has experience with a variety of think tanks, nonprofits, and in state and federal government.

 

The interview may be accessed HERE:  Bethany Salgado interview

Conference Concept Note HERE

Registration (Free) HERE

Conference Website HERE.

From the White House: Text of the "Guidelines: Opening Up America Again"

White House released a three-phase plan for when people can return to work school and a semblance of normal life – absent dates or clarity about how and when it would occur. Notably missing from the plan are metrics about what level of testing must be reached, or what will constitute a sufficiently leveled 'curve' of deaths or infections to trigger moving up the scale. * * * The guidelines recommend states be on a 'downward trajectory' to move forward through the phases, Bloomberg News reported. It will be up to the governors to decide when to reopen, the president acknowledged, days after saying he had 'absolute power' on the subject and getting pushback. 'You are going to call your own shots,' Trump said, a source told CNN. (Donald Trump unveils three-phase guidelines on reopening the country, telling governors they 'call the shots' on when to end lockdowns - but with NO dates on when to start AND a demand they have large-scale testing)

The Guidelines: Opening Up America Again follows below.

Interview: Nicolas Scholz COVID-19, the Situation in Germany and an EU Perspective, for Upcoming Webinar "COVID-19 and International Affairs" (17 April 2020)

In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist. For our first interview, Flora Sapio spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our second interview, Larry Catá Backer spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. Yuri Gonzalez was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state.  Alice Hong provided insight on COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student in the US. GAO Shan spoke to the way that the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative context of Wuhan (where his family lives) and the US Midwest (where he now resides).  Keren Wang considered the ways in which each system framed the pandemic in ways that could be understood, noting how differences in those understandings could produce very different responses. Jonathan Kiwana spoke to issues of COVID-19 and Africa, focusing on Uganda and the region. And Pini Miretski spoke to the situation in Russia, Israel and states of the former Soviet Union.

For our next interview, Nicolas Scholz  spoke to the situation in Germany, a federal Republic with its own brand of center-periphery issues that are different from that between the US States and federal government.  He spoke as well to COVID-19 from a European historical perspective, situating it within a century of shocks that adds perspective. And he considered the implications of COVID19 on social cohesion pulled between nationalism and globalization.  Lastly he considered the way that COVID-19 might play a role in the contradictions between politics and administration, reacting to the debating point: does COVID-19 inaugurate the age of the technocrat  and institutional administrator displacing the political actors at the center of the organization of the state.  

Dr. Scholz is an independent researcher. Graduate of Ludwig Maximilians University (Munich) (MS 2018) with experience in Emerging Security Challenges Division, NATO (2019); Sino-German Cooperation Industrie 4.0 (2018-2019); Konrad Adenauer Siftung (2016) . Web Information here.  

 

The interview may be accessed HERE:   Nicolas Scholz interview

Conference Concept Note HERE

Registration (Free) HERE

Conference Website HERE.

Interview: Pini Miretski COVID-19, the State and Technology From the Perspective of Russia, Ukraine and other Post Soviet States, and Israel, for Upcoming Webinar "COVID-19 and International Affairs" (17 April 2020)

In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist. For our first interview, Flora Sapio spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our second interview, Larry Catá Backer spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. Yuri Gonzalez was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state.  Alice Hong provided insight on COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student in the US. GAO Shan spoke to the way that the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative context of Wuhan (where his family lives) and the US Midwest (where he now resides).  Keren Wang considered the ways in which each system framed the pandemic in ways that could be understood, noting how differences in those understandings could produce very different responses. And Jonathan Kiwana spoke to issues of COVID-19 and Africa, focusing on Uganda and the region.

For our next interview, Pini Miretski speaks to the state, technology and the response of Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Turkmenistan, and Belarus in meeting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. He first considers the current responses among these states form a comparative perspectives, and then considers the role of technology in each nation's response. He ends by examining some positive aspects--the spike in volunteerism in these states, as well as the role of business and civil society. 

Dr. Miretski serves as Deputy Director, Planning and Program Development Division, JDC. Pini Miretski has over fifteen years of experience in an international humanitarian relief organization. In 2014, Pini received his PhD in International Law, which dealt with Transnational Corporations and Human Rights from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has also undertaken concentrated training on nonprofit management at Columbia University, NY. Pini has several published articles on the role of non-State actors in international law and human rights. His academic interests focus on international legal theory and the role of nongovernmental actors in transnational law. At his work, Pini focuses on strategic planning and innovation at the field of humanitarian relief. 

 

The interview may be accessed HERE:   Pini Miretski interview

Conference Concept Note HERE

Registration (Free) HERE

Conference Website HERE.

Interview: "Will COVID-19 Infect the World Order" Interview by Payman Yazdam (نظم آتی جهان وابسته به موفقیت چین یا آمریکا در مقابله با کروناست)

It was my great honor to have been interviewed by Payman Yazdani for the Mehr News Agency.  We spoke about COVID-19 and its potentially significant consequences for the world order. Mr. Yazdani nicely set out the context:

TEHRAN, Apr. 15 (MNA) –Professor Larry Backer in an interview with Mehr News Agency argues that the concept of COVID-19 may penetrate the world order like the virus attacks individuals. The current coronavirus pandemic ravaging every corner of the world and many states are desperate in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Nations and governments are panicking and the economy has already collapsed. This crisis is expected to deepen more and more without a serious global willingness and cooperation. Due to the great impact of the coronavirus on the world from different aspects, many believe that changes to existing world order and international relations are inevitable in the post-corona era. In an effort to make the dimension of the changes to the existing world order by coronavirus clearer, we reached out to Larry Cata Backer , Professor of Law and International Affairs at Penn State University. Here is the full text of his answers to our questions:

 My approach was centered on a view of change but not of a break.

"Thus, the effects of COVID-19 will not be revolutionary in the sense of abandoning old systems.  Rather it will accelerate tendencies already well observed.  It will also further refine a tendency toward differentiation (and choice) rather than toward convergence.  But again, these dominant ideologies invested the pandemic with a very specific signification—and an ancient one: it was a test (which could be rationalized in religious or secular “scientific” terms).  That test was meant to prove the value of the system tested.  But it was also meant to serve as a furnace within which the weakness of those systems might be burned away, leaving only the strong core from which the system could emerge changed and re-invigorated. But changed in ways that will hyper emphasize some of its organizing principles (described above) and scorch away the rest."

The interview has been published in English (Will COVID-19 infect the world order?) and  فارسی (Farsi) (نظم آتی جهان وابسته به موفقیت چین یا آمریکا در مقابله با کروناست) by the Mehr News Agency and will be published as well in the Tehran Times. My great thanks to Mr. Yazdani for the opportunity to share my thoughts and for his quite incisive questions.

 It may be accessed by clicking on the link above and is set out below.

Interview: Jonathan Kiwana on African Perspectives; Uganda and the Response to the COVID-19, for Upcoming Webinar "COVID-19 and International Affairs" (17 April 2020)

In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist. For our first interview, Flora Sapio spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our second interview, Larry Catá Backer spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. Yuri Gonzalez was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state.  Alice Hong provided insight on COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student in the US. GAO Shan spoke to the way that the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative context of Wuhan (where his family lives) and the US Midwest (where he now resides). And Keren Wang considered the ways in which each system framed the pandemic in ways that could be understood, noting how differences in those understandings could produce very different responses.

For our next interview, Jonathan Kiwana, a lawyer and constitutional scholar in Uganda (and a former student) speaks to the way that Uganda and neighboring states confronted COVID-19 and the pandemic. He spoke as well to the substantial differences in approach. He also considered the role of the African Union and IFIs, as well as the role of Multinational Enterprises in meeting the COVID-19 challenge. He ends with a reflection on the post pandemic future of international relations from an African perspective. 

Mr. Kiwana is a Senior Associate with Bowmans, a Corporate- Commercial, Top Tier, Pan-African law firm advising financial institutions, multi national companies and energy companies on commercial transactions in East Africa. I have: performed a securities review for three leading banks, advised on a dual listing on the Uganda Securities Exchange and the Nairobi Stock Exchange and advised an oil company on proposed off-shore operations. I have acted in the Supreme Court of Uganda for a former managing director of Uganda's largest pension fund accused of white collar crimes. For the last three years I have been invited to the African Leadership Forum hosted by former African presidents and have once addressed the general assembly. I am also passionate about matters of human rights, rule of law, good governance and constitutionalism and often write on these.

 

The interview may be accessed HERE:   Jonathan Kiwana interview

Conference Concept Note HERE

Registration (Free) HERE

Conference Website HERE.

Interview: Keren Wang on Comparing US and Chinese Responses to the Pandemic, for Upcoming Webinar "COVID-19 and International Affairs" (17 April 2020)

In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist. For our first interview, Flora Sapio spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our second interview, Larry Catá Backer spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. Yuri Gonzalez was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state.  Alice Hong provided insight on COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student in the US. And GAO Shan spoke to the way that the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative context of Wuhan (where his family lives) and the US Midwest (where he now resides).

For our next interview Keren Wang speaks to the issues of the way that the Pandemic was framed and experienced in the US and China. He considers the ways in which each system framed the pandemic in ways that could be understood. He noted how differences in those understandings could produce very different responses. Dr. Wang also considered the ways in which the official and popular discourse about the pandemic sometimes aligned and sometimes deviated in some substantial respects. The effects on both the internal organization of national responses, and on their international relations of states, have been both profound and to some extent quite different.

Dr. Wang is an Assistant Teaching Professor in Communication Arts and Sciences, Pennsylvania State University ( Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University (2018); M.A., The Pennsylvania State University (2013); B.A., Drexel University (2010)). He studies rhetorical theory, political communication, and history of ideas that shape globalization and its discontents. Publications include ​Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism (​​1st ed​. ​Oxford: Routledge, 2019). To learn more about his research and teaching interests please see his personal website: http://sites.psu.edu/kerenw/ 

 

The interview may be accessed HERE:   Keren Wang interview here.

Conference Concept Note HERE

Registration (Free) HERE

Conference Website HERE.

Interview: GAO Shan on Straddling the COVID-19 Pandemic From Wuhan, China's Midwest to Minnesota, the US Midwest, for Upcoming Webinar "COVID-19 and International Affairs" (17 April 2020)

In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist. For our first interview, Flora Sapio spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our second interview, Larry Catá Backer spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. Yuri Gonzalez was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state. And Alice Hong provided insight on COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student in the US.

For our next interview GAO Shan speaks about life under COVID-19 across the US-China divide. Dr. Gao grew up in Wuhan where his parents still live and work.  He is currently working in the US Midwest. He speaks to us about the situation in Wuhan from the perspective of an insider from the outside and then relates those experiences in thinking about the differences in the way that the pandemic is experienced in Wuhan and in the US Midwest.

Dr. Gao (Penn State Law (SJD 2018)) is licensed in New York and China. He currently works for Thomson Reuters Corporation in Minnesota. As a member of Coalition for Peace and Ethics, Dr. Gao has worked to provide guidance for Chinese immigrants in New York State. He produced and distributed the legal education and guidance pamphlet, Know your Rights, an Information Guide to Basics of New York State Legal System (CPE, 2018) under the supervision of professor Backer. His academic research focus on the dynamic interaction between law and social order through the lens of commercial activities of multinational corporations. His S.J.D thesis: The Evolution of China’s Foreign Investment Policy and Law captured the modernization of China’s commercial legal system during the past three decades, provided a well documented chronicle of the evolving foreign investment system during the pre-trade-war era (1949-2016).

 

The interview may be accessed HERE:   GAO Shan interview here.

Conference Concept Note HERE

Registration (Free) HERE

Conference Website HERE.

Interview: Alice Hong on COVID-19 from the Perspective of a Foreign Student in the US for Upcoming Webinar "COVID-19 and International Affairs" (17 April 2020)

In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist. For our first interview, Flora Sapio spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our second interview, Larry Catá Backer spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. Yuri Gonzalez was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state.

For our next interview Alice Hong speaks to COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student at a US university. She reflects on the way that the great drivers of international relations produce personal and individual effects. She also speaks to the difficulties of dealing with the personal effects  across borders and great distances. 

Ms Hong is an MIA candidate at the School of International Affairs at Penn State University and the President of the Research Network for Law and International Affairs at Penn State. Her interests include International Development and International Relations. She has been involved with various campaigns and conferences related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and applies those experiences to her research. 

 

The interview may be accessed HERE:   Alice Hong Interview

Conference Concept Note HERE

Registration (Free) HERE

Conference Website HERE.