Think Tank Complains 'Coronavirus is Killing Globalization As We Know It'

Says it's been a "gift to nationalists."
Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Mar. 13, 2020

The founder of a globalist think tank has written an article for Foreign Policy in which he complains that the coronavirus outbreak is “killing globalization as we know it.”

Philippe Legrain, founder of the Open Political Economy Network (OPEN) says that the spread of COVID-19 “has been a gift to nativist nationalists and protectionists.”

Legrain argues that coronavirus could be “the nail in the coffin for the current era of globalization” because it has “highlighted the downsides of extensive international integration while fanning fears of foreigners and providing legitimacy for national restrictions on global trade and flows of people.”

He adds that the crisis will have a lasting impact on undermining America’s reliance on international supply chains and provide “political fodder for nationalists who favor greater protectionism and immigration controls.”

“The coronavirus crisis threatens to usher in a less globalized world,” concludes Legrain. “Once the pandemic and panic abate, those who believe that openness to people and products from around the world is generally a good thing will need to make the case for it in fresh and persuasive ways.”

Global business travelers, long an avatar of our globalized world, may see their lives become more grounded as businesses become more accustomed to teleconferencing and working from home. https://t.co/0rXQq9rrwH
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) March 13, 2020

Foreign Policy is published by The Washington Post Company (now Graham Holdings Company) and has a distinctly globalist bias.

Legrain’s point that coronavirus has provided legitimacy for restrictions of flows of people is borne out by the fact that countries like Russia and Singapore, which imposed strong border controls to stop COVID-19 back in January, have largely escaped the worst of pandemic.

In his latest column, conservative icon Pat Buchanan also highlights how coronavirus has served to expose the weaknesses of globalization.

“It may one day be said that the coronavirus delivered the deathblow to the New World Order, to a half-century of globalization and to the era of interdependence of the world’s great nations,” writes Buchanan.