The unfolding tragedy of Afghanistan has eclipsed reporting of the COVID pandemic while a fourth wave of infections is sweeping the Earth. Paul Rogers argues that global vaccine inequality risks those in all countries as the Delta variant tests the limits of current vaccines.
Many rich states believe they are finally getting COVID-19 under control but with new viral variants, most of the world’s population far from being vaccinated, and local tensions building over impact on livelihoods and liberties, the political impact of the pandemic is far from played out.
Eighteen months into the pandemic, Paul Rogers sees a stark contrast between the complacency setting in among countries with successful rapid vaccination programmes and large areas of the world experiencing a devastating third wave. Vaccine nationalism, hoarding and export controls threaten not just the unvaccinated as dangerous new viral mutations develop.
Fifteen months on, the COVID-19 pandemic is showing few signs of abating, and is even accelerating in parts of Europe, South America and Asia. In the first of a new series of regular briefings for Rethinking Security, Paul Rogers argues that massive increases in global inequality are as central to this human security crisis as the immediate health impacts.
Between Covid and climate catastrophe, 2021 is a time of intense human insecurity. With neither Government nor Opposition likely to develop a strategy that addresses this, Richard Reeve argues that it's high time the UK had a human security strategy.
In a month of dire warnings of our potential to destroy our civilisation and planet, Andrew Rigby draws hope from the self-interested mobilisation that moved Victorian Britain beyond a public health crisis comparable to Covid-19.
Shannen Johnson of the Peace Museum reflects on the challenges of curating a digital exhibition devoted to documenting the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on peace and protest in the UK.
Clive Barrett argues that a radical review of national, community and family memory would empower resistance to racism and right-wing extremism.
Abigail Watson and Alasdair McKay make the case for Sustainable Security, incorporating a broader range of risk drivers and responses than the national security approach. Embracing this would be an opportunity for the UK to strategise a more secure society and world after Covid-19.
Jørgen Johansen argues that, like terrorism before it, the Covid-19 pandemic is being used by politicians across the world to normalise exceptional restrictions on basic rights with political consequences that will long outlast the health emergency.
Loraine Masiya Mponela, the chairperson of Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (CARAG), reflects on the unique challenges being faced by asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in the UK during the pandemic.
Steven Schofield argues that the scale of economic devastation likely to follow the Covid-19 crisis redoubles the case for a Green New Deal to rebuild more resilient, sustainable and inclusive communities.
