New pandemic treaty prompts WW2 comparisons

Like World War Two, could Covid-19 create a new world order? Yesterday, 24 world leaders signed an open letter calling upon all countries to work together to fight future pandemics. In July 1944, as World War Two came to a close, delegates from all over the world gathered in Bretton Woods, in the US state of New Hampshire. Their purpose: to build a new world order out of the ruins of the old. It was to be based not on empires, but on co-operation between nations. The delegates created the International Monetary Fund to rescue countries from financial crises. At the same time, the United Nations was set up to promote peace and human rights, and six nations in Europe created the European Coal and Steel Community – the forerunner to the European Union. Now, as the world takes its first steps out of the Covid-19 pandemic, some leaders think it is once again time to build a new world order. Yesterday, a group of 24 world leaders, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, signed an open letter calling for a new treaty to bring countries together in the fight against future pandemics. The letter, which appeared in multiple languages in newspapers around the world, warns that there will be more pandemics: “The question is not if, but when.” The aim of the new treaty would be to help countries share data about diseases, transfer PPE to where it is most needed, and ensure that everyone on the planet is vaccinated quickly when the next pandemic strikes. Most experts agree that international cooperation is vital in managing a pandemic. When a virus is allowed to spread uncontrolled, it quickly mutates and develops new variants which can be resistant to vaccines. Those new variants can rapidly spread around the world – even in vaccinated populations. So, vaccinating one single country does little to halt a pandemic: the whole world has to be inoculated to ensure the virus cannot spread. As the letter notes: “nobody is safe until everyone is safe”. Some think this letter is a sign that the world is changing for the better. They argue that the major threats now facing humanity, like climate breakdown, can only be defeated through international cooperation. All countries must agree to reduce their carbon emissions to stop global heating. And as heating makes some of the world uninhabitable, millions of people will have to relocate, creating new refugee crises. These problems will need to be solved co-operatively, and this treaty is an early step in that direction. But others are sceptical that this really is the beginning of a new world order. They point out that the leaders of the USA and China, the world’s two superpowers, have not signed the letter. At the Bretton Woods Conference, British economist John Maynard Keynes proposed an institution, the International Clearing Union, which would redistribute wealth from the richest countries back to the poorest. But the idea was vetoed by the USA, which did not want to share its huge wealth. Some warn that this new treaty will also fail if today’s superpowers are not willing to back it. Like World War Two, could Covid-19 create a new world order? Rebirth Yes, say some. They argue that the pandemic has proved that countries can no longer solve their problems alone. We will only be able to deal with future viruses, as well as existential threats like climate breakdown and war, through international cooperation. The letter signed by world leaders yesterday is just the first small step towards a better, more harmonious future. Not at all, say others. They think it is wrong to imagine that the end of World War Two ushered in a new era of global cooperation: in reality, the USA and western powers just set up a global order that would ensure their domination. In the same way, if the USA and China, the world’s two great superpowers, do not think a pandemic treaty is in their interests, it will never get off the ground. KeywordsNew Hampshire - A state in the north-east US with a population of nearly 1.4 million.