Neoliberalism vs Covid-19

It seems the current Covid-19 pandemic has brought the theory that dominates the international political economy world to a halt. Globalisation, a force for good, that prides itself in it's mutual dependance according to neoliberalism, true colours have been revealed over past two years.

The increased interdependence prompted by neoliberalism has seen many benefits, the specialisation of labour means goods are produced more efficiently and cheaply. Economic sanctions are used in place of military force minimising the risk of war and international organisations can help mediate all issues concerning states. Yet it is this same interdependence that according to prominent political scientist, Stephen M. Walt that has lead to hyperglobalisation, meaning the financial system is more greatly effected by crises and a rise in job displacement. In pandemics when resources are in demand, especially items like medical supplies, countries hoard these items as the well being of their own state is prioritised, this primarily effects countries with weaker economies, highlighting the way in which neoliberalism pretends to support global development by extracting resources under the guise of mutual benefits but leaves these weaker economies as an after thought in reality.

 

The pandemic has also lead to the global supply chain being disturbed, many corporations prioritising short term profits don't duplicate or diversify themselves, so they are unprepared when there a shocks in the economy. In this image we can see how heavily dependant countries are on China for a large amount of there resources, a virus outbreak here means a substantial part of the world is in trouble and while countries are somewhat aware to not be to 100% dependant on one place for resources, the specialisation of labour promoted by neoliberalism means it does still occur. 

As well as the fact, the reason it is continuously endorsed by those in power is because of the mutual benefits there are for the states involved but ignores the vast inequality between states, how it greatly favours imperialist countries and ignores the role of women and this has only been exarterbrated by the pandemic. This documentary highlights the way in which women are facing one of the greatest burdens as a result of globalisation and the pandemic. Factories closing down in developing countries such as Bangladesh puts many of these women out of work,  this is seen with the '70% drop in income for people living in poverty' in the country and while factories in these countries do not have the best working conditions some adaptations need to be made to abide government regulations, leading to increased productions costs and so these women are left jobless and the factories that don't shutdown bear the burden of even worse working conditions. 

With all this being said, this post isn't to say that neoliberalism is a useless ideology or that the other theories in international political economy are better, but it's dominance should be more critiqued, especially in light of the pandemic, the hyper interdependence between nations means issues in one country don't just affect that country, especially since hyper inter-dependance in the past has lead to long term issues internationally like the financial crash of 2008, we should've learnt our lesson but as seen above, it seems we are yet too.