Major global crises act as key events that change the ways in which we think and act.  For countries they present opportunities to forward interests and to gain advantage over others.  In the twenty-first century we have experienced a couple of such critical inflection points – the September 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 credit crunch – when the curve and trajectory of international politics was subsequently re-crafted by its most influential actors.  As then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair aptly noted in the aftermath of 9/11: “this is a moment to seize.  The kaleidoscope has been shaken.  The pieces are in flux.  Soon they will settle again.  Before they do, let us re-order this world around us”.

Despite its relatively novel status, we can already see evidence of countries using the crisis for domestic advantage.  In Hungary Victor Orbán passed open-ended emergency powers to allow him to rule by decree, silence the media and disempower democratic institutions.  In India, advocates of the ruling BJP have blamed the crisis on the country’s Muslim population, labelling it “corona jihad”, in order to further their right wing Hindu nationalist agenda.  In the UK, Boris Johnson’s Conservative government looks set to use Covid-19 to mask the expected economic fallout from pursuing a no-deal Brexit.  As the pandemic deepens, we can expect such domestic political obfuscation to only increase.