Almost four months of 2020 have just been passed till now but all these months went like a ride on a roller-coaster. From Bush fire in Australia to global pandemic, consecutively, the world is undergoing unprecedented events. On January 2nd, bushfire in New South Wales, Australia came to limelight due to its exceptional effects on the environment and livelihood in Australia. Due to this bushfire, at least 33 people died including 4 firefighters, more than 11 million hectares (110,000 sq. km or 27.2 million acres) of the bush, forest and parks across Australia has burned, more than 2,000 homes destroyed, and almost 1 billion animals died including rare species (Source: BBC and NYT). The second most prominent event was the upsurge of Iran-USA contention that had brought a perilous turn in the global politics and made people predict about the onset of third world war. The conflict escalated after the killing of Iranian major General Qaseem Soleimani in a drone strike by the US on January 2nd. As a retaliation act, Iran launched ballistic missiles at two military bases in Iraq. Additionally, a Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 crashed in Tehran, killing all 176 people aboard as collateral damage due to the human error instigated by this panicking situation.
Primarily, the most dramatic and preeminent chapter of 2020 is the outbreak of global pandemic the spread of novel Coronavirus (nCoV-19) commonly known as Corona Virus or COVID-19. A respiratory disease whose common symptoms are cold with fever, cough and difficulty in breathing. Believed to be originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019 but soon it became a nightmare for the whole world. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. On February 11, the new coronavirus disease was given a name COVID-19 and on March 11, WHO declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Until now(Data on April 24, 2020, source: WHO official website), there are 2,631,839 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 182,100 deaths, reported to WHO. Owing to the contagious character of the virus the world came under lockdown, businesses closed, events cancelled, tourism terminated, flights suspended making life paralyzed all over the globe. It has affected the whole world without any discrimination of race, colour, religion or nationality leaving all states in the same boat of helplessness and frustration Even the strongest nations having nuclear capabilities and veto powers seem feeble. De-facto, statistics illustrate that most developed nations are the most affected ones. At the moment, the US, the superpower of the world has the most coronavirus cases. Until now US has more than 830,053 confirmed Covid19 cases and more than 42,000 deaths have been reported (resource: WHO).
Whilst the spread of Coronavirus, multiple controversies have also begun to circulate among masses especially on social media stating this virus manmade, bioterrorism, and a bioweapon. A fresh wave of blame-game among the global powers commenced by accusing each other for generating this virus. Russia and China believe that this is a bioweapon created by the US to halt the Chinese economy as there is already a trade war going on between China and the US. On the contrary, the US and Israel believe that it’s been created by China in a suspected lab of Wuhan. Further, some of the media reports had linked it with the battle between superpowers and 5G internet. As a response to these controversies, scientists condemned rumours and warned people to stay away from misinformation and accusations.
Moreover, there is a debate in all circles about the post-Covid19 world. Several scholars are predicting a new world order and economic recession such as the former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote in his article in Washington Post that “The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Forever Alter the World Order”. However, some experts are foreseeing progress in the field of Artificial intelligence and information technology.
Putting all the controversies aside as there is yet not sufficient evidence available to prove about the origin of the virus that either it is natural or manmade, plus it’s too early to forecast post-Covid19 scenarios but it’s somewhat clear that it is going to fetch drastic changes in the years to come in terms of social, political, health and even governance system. Furthermore, it emanates questions for the field of academia that what has to be done in future research and is it time for researchers for a paradigm shift in their area of research? Academia is certainly an integral part of the society that can help in reshaping future. The recent episode of Covid19 has revealed the significance of research on non-traditional security(NTS) issues. It has unlocked new horizons for scholars in the field of academia to explore underlying non-traditional security threats and their consequences. Nontraditional security threats can be defined as “ the challenges to the survival and well-being of peoples and states that arise primarily out of non-military sources, such as climate change, resources scarcity, infectious diseases, natural disasters, irregular migration, food shortages, people smuggling, drug trafficking and transnational crime. These dangers are often transnational in scope, defying unilateral remedies and requiring comprehensive – political, economic, social – responses, as well as humanitarian use of military force”.(Source: Caballero-Anthony, M. (ed.). 2016. An Introduction to Non-Traditional Security Studies–A Transnational Approach. Sage Publications, London.). Given the present scenario, It is a high time for researchers to invest their time and energies more towards the non-traditional Security threats as from the existing pandemic, it became evident that non-traditional security threats are real and can be more precarious than traditional security threats. Scholars can play their inevitable role by conducting in-depth research specifically designed for NTS concerns, should determine the possible future threats and devise a plan of action to deal with any such situation in the future so that precious lives can be saved and repercussions could be lessened. It is a prerequisite to find gaps in the existing literature about NTS and fill it by experimenting it under diverse theoretical frameworks and methodologies to discover apt solutions. Exploring NTS doesn’t mean that traditional security threats would be overlooked entirely rather, the purpose is to recognize the justified acceptance of NTS in the international arena to avoid any potential prospect hazards.
Nontraditional threats entail nontraditional methods and solutions to deal with it. Global leaders need to understand that it’s not the right time to play blame-games rather, differences aside, a global joint concerted effort is necessitated to handle such a strenuous challenge. Billions of dollars have been spent every year on military and weapons to safeguard states nevertheless, the recent pandemic has exposed that all these billion dollars are in vain against such trial. It’s high time to make concessions in the military budget and invest more on public health and research facilities specifically concerning NTS.
The recent pandemic has shunned the world and has brought extraordinary changes notwithstanding, global powers having nuclear weapons and satellites in the space couldn’t be able to save themselves from this global pandemic. Governments need to learn from each other about how to manage and deal with such circumstances to curtail the aftermaths of such pandemics. They also need to devise a collective plan of action with the help of researchers, to deal with any such situation in the future. It has been witnessed that surprisingly nondemocratic governments like China and Russia performed better than democratic ones in tackling the situation. It needs to be discovered that what were the key factors or procedures that made them more efficient. The global public health policy is indispensable to be formulated to improve the health care system of every country. Regulations concerning public health, bioweapons and governance in times of pandemics and other calamities should inevitably be framed with the help of academics and ought to be implemented through international and regional organizations. Covid19 is truly global and know no borders hence, to fight against it, we need to be united as well. In this war against coronavirus, we are all together and can win only with unity and cooperation. As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “What the world needs now is solidarity. With solidarity, we can defeat the virus and build a better world”.
