Pandemics And Peace

Presented are case studies of recent pandemic threats in our globalized world and how interests, institutions, and ideas can align to allow for interstate cooperations even in unfavorable environments. The author has a working proposition on what makes new forms of public-private governance effective and he creates analytical frameworks for practitioners grappling with transnational problems. Engaged here are core debates in the international relations theories of cooperation.

In this edited volume, experts on conflict resolution examine the impact of the crises triggered by the coronavirus and official responses to it. The pandemic has clearly exacerbated existing social and political conflicts, but, as the book argues, its longer-term effects open the door to both further conflict escalation and dramatic new opportunities for building peace. In a series of short essays combining social analysis with informed speculation, the contributors examine the impact of the coronavirus crisis on a wide variety of issues, including nationality, social class, race, gender, ethnicity, and religion. They conclude that the period of the pandemic may well constitute a historic turning point, since the overall impact of the crisis is to destabilize existing social and political systems. Not only does this systemic shakeup produce the possibility of more intense and violent conflicts, but also presents new opportunities for advancing the related causes of social justice and civic peace. This book will be of great interest to students of peace studies, conflict resolution, public policy and International Relations.

This book examines the legal and security threat posed by pandemics in Africa and beyond. The authors propose that to effectively counter pandemics, it is necessary for states to transcend beyond a realism approach and to adopt security policies that reflect the multidimensional nature of state authority and functions.

Between August 1918 and March 1919 the Spanish influenza spread worldwide, claiming over 25 million lives - more people than perished in the fighting of the First World War. It proved fatal to at least a half-million Americans. Yet, the Spanish flu pandemic is largely forgotten today. In this vivid narrative, Alfred W. Crosby recounts the course of the pandemic during the panic-stricken months of 1918 and 1919, measures its impact on American society, and probes the curious loss of national memory of this cataclysmic event. This 2003 edition includes a preface discussing the then recent outbreaks of diseases, including the Asian flu and the SARS epidemic.

Look around you - how have things changed? One year ago, most of us could have never guessed how different our lives would become. Pandemics were the things you only heard about from history books or they happened in less privileged countries, those with minimal health care and hard living conditions. The month of March 2020 introduced us to new phrases. 'Safer at home', 'Essential workers', 'Social distancing', 'Flattening the curve', and 'Herd immunity', suddenly became topics of discussion. Schools have closed, jobs have been lost, businesses have gone bankrupt. People have died. The ravages of Covid 19 have touched everyone. The difficulties during the world-wide spread of the Coronavirus are unprecedented. The health care system is overwhelmed, medical personnel are physically exhausted and emotionally drained. Authority has been challenged, and some individuals have turned to violence as their fear of losing control has grown. Look around you - it is not pretty.Yet, babies have been born, weddings have taken place, students have graduated, and the internet has provided a way for workers and schools to carry on, albeit a bit differently than before this pandemic. The world has kept turning, the sun and moon have continued as scheduled. How are you doing? Are you living in fear of what might happen or how you might be affected? Has the sorrow of death engulfed you in grief? Are the 'what ifs' causing you to live in anxiety? There is an answer. It is not a religion nor is it a building. His name is God. Faith placed in the things of this world has been uprooted, shaken like a fierce storm. Perhaps it is time to place your trust on solid ground. Your fears will be replaced with peace in God's perfect plan.

Civil wars, corporate exploitation, AIDS, and Ebola—but also democracy, burgeoning cities, and unprecedented communication and mobility: the future of Africa has never been more uncertain. Indeed, that future is one of the most complex issues in contemporary anthropology, as evidenced by the incredible wealth of ideas offered in this landmark volume. A consortium comprised of some of the most important scholars of Africa today, this book surveys an intellectual landscape of opposed perspectives in order to think within the contradictions that characterize this central question: Where is Africa headed? The experts in this book address Africa’s future as it is embedded within various social and cultural forms emerging on the continent today: the reconfiguration of the urban, the efflorescence of signs and wonders and gospels of prosperity, the assorted techniques of legality and illegality, lotteries and Ponzi schemes, apocalyptic visions, a yearning for exile, and many other phenomena. Bringing together social, political, religious, and economic viewpoints, the book reveals not one but multiple prospects for the future of Africa. In doing so, it offers a pathbreaking model of pluralistic and open-ended thinking and a powerful tool for addressing the vexing uncertainties that underlie so many futures around the world.