Page - 15 - in Friedensgutachten 2020 - Im Schatten der Pandemie: letzte Chance für Europa

STATEMENT / In the Shadow of the Pandemic: Europe’s Last Chance / 15 peace report / 2020 We cannot write an analysis of the state of peace in the world in spring 2020 without mentioning the coronavirus pandemic. The force with which the COVID-19 crisis impacts and suppresses other issues is overwhelming. The virus, which first emerged in China, has spread rapidly across the whole globe. Efforts to hinder its progress have entailed a huge curtailment of civil liberties. Social distancing has become the new form of coexistence. Speculation on falling prices is rampant. National economies are gradually collapsing. This all places a considerable amount of stress on peace – both domestically and internationally. In Europe, attention during the coronavirus crisis has mostly focused on issues of peace within our societies and on the question of how strong our sense of solidarity actually is. But the pandemic affects other regions of the world just as or even more dramatically – and we need to keep them in mind, too, when we think about threats to peace. Particularly in the poorest countries, there is a danger that the next wave of the pandemic will see health systems collapse and drastic shortages emerge in the supply of food, medicine and clean drinking water, while state institutions could fail, leading to political unrest and an increased risk of everyday violence. The 2020 coronavirus pandemic is keeping the world in suspense. It is consuming vast quantities of resources and has led to sweeping political interventions in the life of societies. Especially in fragile regions of the world, there is a danger of socio-economic turmoil and political unrest. A global pandemic requires a global response – in terms of both geography and design. The EU has a particular responsibility here. If the current crisis can be dealt with via cooperative means, this also creates opportunities for the post-corona world. In the shadow of the pandemic, it is also all too easy for other threats to peace to fall off the radar or run out of control. They, too, have to be kept in view and dealt with.