Search

Begin New Search Topic COVID-19 Political Geography North America

41. The Complex History of US-Philippine Health Partnerships

Author:
Leslie V. Advincula-Lopez
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Leslie V. Advincula-Lopez, Development Studies Program and Institute of Philippine Culture Ateneo de Manila University, explains that, "[l]ong before the term, global health diplomacy (GHD) became a buzzword in international relations, an efficient Philippine public health system... was a focal point of US-Philippine relations."
Topic:
Diplomacy, Health, Bilateral Relations, Partnerships, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Philippines, North America, Asia-Pacific, and United States of America

42. Examining Philippine-US Cooperation Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic: Setting a Broader Agenda for Educating Filipino Children and Youth

Author:
Glenda Lopez Wui
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Dr. Ma. Glenda Lopez Wui, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University, explains that “[t]he US Government has been providing support to the Philippines to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on Filipino students,” including providing nearly $3 million in funds and equipment to support education delivery.
Topic:
Education, Bilateral Relations, COVID-19, and Cooperation
Political Geography:
Philippines, North America, Asia-Pacific, and United States of America

43. The politicized pandemic: Ideological polarization and the behavioral response to COVID-19*

Author:
Gianluca Grimalda, David Pipke, Fabrice Murtin, and Louis Putterman
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
Abstract:
We investigate the relationship between political attitudes and prosociality in a survey of a representative sample of the U.S. population during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that an experimental measure of prosociality correlates positively with adherence to protective behaviors. Liberal political ideology predicts higher levels of protective behavior than conservative ideology, independently of the differences in prosociality across the two groups. Differences between liberals and conservatives are up to 4.4 times smaller in their behavior than in judging the government’s crisis management. This result suggests that U.S. Americans are more polarized on ideological than behavioral grounds.
Topic:
Politics, Ideology, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Protection
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

44. Global Food Security Act Reauthorization: New and Lingering Challenges

Author:
Gloria Dabek
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Abstract:
Amid new challenges to global food security, the Center for Global Food and Agriculture analyzes necessary changes to the Global Food Security Act Reauthorization. The Global Food Security Act (GFSA) authorizes the Feed the Future Initiative (FTF), the US government’s premier effort to address the root causes of hunger and poverty in lower- and middle-income countries. The GFSA must recognize how the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change wreak havoc on global food security efforts.
Topic:
Agriculture, Poverty, Food, Hunger, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
North America and Global Focus

45. World Economy Winter 2022: Strong headwinds for global economic activity

Author:
Klaus-Jurgen Gern, Stefan Kooths, Ulrich Stolzenburg, Jan Reents, and Nils Sonnenberg
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
Abstract:
Global growth has decelerated over the course of the year under the impact of high energy prices and great uncertainty. Monetary policy, which is being tightened very quickly in view of high inflationary pressure across the board, is now also putting a drag on economic activity. Overall, production remained on an upward trend into the fall, with impetus coming from easing supply bottlenecks and the continuing normalization of activity in those sectors of the economy particularly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Towards the end of the year, however, economic momentum weakened noticeably further. The major advanced economies in particular are currently facing a period of weak economic activity despite considerable fiscal support measures. At the same time, the problems for the Chinese economy remain significant. While global output (measured on a purchasing power parity basis) at 3.2 percent is expected to grow by 0.3 percentage points more this year than expected in September, we continue to forecast an increase of only 2.2 percent next year. For 2024, our expectation has even been reduced slightly to 3.2 percent, mainly because we do expect the US economy to recover slowly. Inflation is likely to have peaked and is expected to slow significantly over the forecast horizon thanks to lower commodity prices and easing economic tensions. However, underlying inflation is not likely to return to target levels until the end of the forecast period.
Topic:
Monetary Policy, Economy, Business, COVID-19, and Emerging Economies
Political Geography:
China, Europe, Asia, North America, and United States of America

46. World Economy Autumn 2022: Global growth falters

Author:
Klaus-Jurgen Gern, Stefan Kooths, Ulrich Stolzenburg, Jan Reents, and Nils Sonnenberg
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
Abstract:
In spring 2022, world economic growth came to a standstill amid high inflation, persistent supply bottlenecks and elevated uncertainty. In many countries real wages are declining significantly dampening private consumption even though extra savings accumulated during the pandemic are still available to mitigate the adverse impact to some extent. At the same time financial conditions have also deteriorated as central banks tightened their policies. In China, the strict zero-covid policy and problems in the real estate sector are slowing economic activity. Against this backdrop, the outlook for the global economy has deteriorated further. We have, again, lowered our forecast and are now expecting global output to increase by only 2.9 percent this year and 2.2 percent next year (calculated on a purchasing power parity basis). The forecast assumes that commodity prices will gradually decline in line with forward prices, which will over time reduce the upward pressure on prices and provides the foundations for an economic upturn in 2024. However, the pass-through of higher commodity prices into consumer prices is probably not yet complete and wage increases are likely to intensify in many countries. Consequently, underlying inflation is likely to remain higher than in the years before the Covid crisis and remain above central bank targets over the forecast horizon.
Topic:
Monetary Policy, Business, COVID-19, Zero-COVID, Emerging Economies, and Advanced Economies
Political Geography:
China, Europe, Asia, North America, and United States of America

47. You May not be Interested in COVID, but COVID is Interested in You

Author:
James F. Keeley
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a clear threat to the lives of individual Albertans; together with the measures taken in response, it has posed a clear threat to their economic circumstances while uncovering existing social fissures in terms of the variable vulnerability of sub-populations to both the virus and those response measures. It qualifies as a significant security threat on these levels. In responding to this threat, the Alberta government marshalled its institutional resources and had to adapt them to circumstances of a scale and type last seen one hundred years ago. It had to do so under economic and political conditions that already presented significant challenges, and that were in some cases strongly exacerbated by its policy choices and their consequences. Finally, it had to do so in the face of strong, yet often contradictory, public pressures. These challenges and difficulties found in the microcosm of a single Canadian province in confronting a specific sort of problem may be of interest and use in considering the prospect, particularly of future, especially non-traditional, security challenges.
Topic:
Security, Economics, Government, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

48. “Open for Summer:” The Political Failure of Alberta’s COVID-19 Response

Author:
Duane Bratt
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
This paper assesses the response by the Alberta government. This case was chosen because Alberta, outside of the first wave, has been hit harder from a per capita basis (and sometimes in absolute terms) by COVID-19 than other provinces. Alberta, despite a good performance in the first wave, has been harder hit in terms of cases, hospitalizations, those in intensive care, and deaths than other provinces (especially the disastrous fourth wave). This paper argues that this performance can be traced to two inter-related factors: 1) the ideology of Premier Jason Kenney (and many of his UCP MLAs, cabinet ministers, and political staffers) and 2) the desire of Kenney to keep the UCP united and himself as leader. Ultimately then, it is politics that best explains why Alberta, despite its wealth and education levels, has done worse responding to the health aspects of COVID-19.
Topic:
Crisis Management, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Canada, North America, and Alberta

49. The Realm of More or Less: Critical Infrastructure and Public Order Factors for Pandemic Strategy

Author:
William McAuley
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The critical infrastructure and public order dimensions of pandemic response provide subplots to the ends-ways-means calculations made by Alberta’s policymakers to supress and mitigate COVID-19. Commencing from a strategic studies perspective, key drivers of pandemic decision making that encroaching on the security sphere are explored. Security realm considerations are found to be interwoven three broad undertones, précised as a preappointed evidence problem, a Cynefin circumstance, and a collective-to-individual cognitive arc. Rather than being a report card on pandemic response strategies, sensitivity to the range and complexity of factors that decision-makers were forced to contend with is projected towards the discovery of some strategic principles of pandemic response. Paramount among these is an appreciation for understanding as being something beyond mere situational awareness. This is recognition of a particular knowledge and application problem that parallels military strategic theory and is heavily reliant on insight and foresight as foundations for complex decision making. Potential areas of focus for further strategic studies inquiry are presented, with a view to addressing indicators of concern relevant to longer-term pandemic recovery.
Topic:
Crisis Management, COVID-19, Critical Infrastructure, and Public Order
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

50. From the Great Influenza to COVID-19: Epidemics of Scale through a Historical Lens

Author:
Fedir Razumenko
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
COVID-19 has galvanized changes in the economy of patient-doctor relationships and technological interfaces across the healthcare system. A rapid adoption of technologies that were previously slow to take hold opened more diverse and accessible spaces for care. At the same time, some persistent barriers in pivoting to scientific-medical advances in managing the pandemic revealed stark inequities in both access to care and exposure to risk. Political and organizational responses to the crisis often excluded the perspectives of vulnerable groups bearing more burdens than others. Some patients and healthcare providers suffered in isolation, however these experiences have escaped public attention due to the fragmented Canadian health information infrastructure. The social meanings of and collective responses to the pandemic nationally are rooted in historical developments. Comparative analyses of epidemic crises along with their consequences have the potential to inform our critical evaluations of problem-solving approaches and policymaking when what we do not know about the issue exceeds what we know. This article demonstrates that historical analysis serves an important role in examining the complex interaction of social and biological forces that constitute epidemic disease. By linking the past and present of epidemic crises we can better understand how social and scientific-medical responses to epidemics shift following the epidemic experience. To be forewarned is to be forearmed acquires a definite meaning as historical contexts set a background for assessing new situations. The COVID-19 pandemic has not emerged out of thin air, so tracing its origin and development is simultaneously a scientific and an historical undertaking.
Topic:
Crisis Management, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Epidemic
Political Geography:
Canada, North America, and Global Focus