Covid-19—the fatal virus that made history—has also killed off a substantial fraction of the world’s population as the total cases rapidly climbed globally, and the rest are still in a life-threatening situation. Some of the states have managed to control the situation, including China and New Zealand, while on the other side, the death rate of some ill-fated nations like the United States of America, Pakistan, India, etc., is still high, and they are experiencing night terrors on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, even the world’s hegemon lacked good governance and was unable to switch towards maintaining and retaining influence and coping with the challenging conditions. The worst-hit nations somehow survived and, bit by bit, returned to normal life as the daily cases wind down.
Furthermore, deeper conspiracy theories have been emerging and doing rounds since the start of this dangerous disease, which contributed to the huge level of deteriorating the crisis even more. These theories are unrolling faster than the virus itself. Some of the conspiracies holding important positions and playing an influential role are that the coronavirus is the start of “germ warfare” prepared in the Chinese lab to use against the world’s superpower in order to make it collapse and take its place by filling the vacuum. While China continuously negated this allegation and came forward with the statements that it is a use of a “bioweapon” the US brought to Wuhan through its military to halt the rise of its competitor—China—and accusing it of sowing the seeds of the disease will help in destroying its world image as a rising power. Both are trying to divert attention from one’s own missteps and also opposing the science-based investigations and intelligence agencies while charging the other with accusations. These affairs beget spoilt interstate relations, tensions that further give rise to several conflicts.
In addition, the Thucydides trap, which goes like “when one great power threatens to displace another, war is almost always the result,” seems appropriate to fit here. Thucydides once quoted, “It was the rise of Athens and the fear this inspired in Sparta that made war inevitable.” Sparta feared the growing rise of the Athenian Empire, and the Peloponnesian War eventuated, which caused instability in Greece. If we go deeper into the history, we see that in the early 20th century, when the world was Europeanised, we observed an almost similar situation. The United States started rising to surpass the global empire under the domain of global economic power and naval supremacy in the Western Hemisphere. Although no war took place, Britain faced the challenges of proximate threats to its position, and in such cases, war occurs, which makes the situation poorer. Every emerging power tries to become number one, which paves the way to conflicts and disorder. Here, in the case of the United States (dominant power) and China (emerging power), both are trying to cut off the other's influence, from fighting on the third territory of Syria to the trade war and holding the other responsible for using bioweapons to terminate the other's power; all have remained as efforts to maintain and build leadership over the world.
At some point, the world was also hit by the secret plan of some groups that it was all the plan of world power to control the global population as it was at its peak.
Besides, with no time, another conspiracy theory came up that Covid-19 is the grand plan by the Jews to target Muslims and stop them from performing their ritual practices as the Muslims’ worship places are closed everywhere while other non-Muslim things are in an ongoing practice. It cannot be appropriate to discuss this, and people believing this have a lack of awareness. Most of the things in the world got affected and attacked by this imperceptible yet powerful virus. As well, it is not good to be a slave of logic and facts all the time, but it is no harm believing in them sometimes. Additionally, it was also assumed as the God’s wrath on his people. It is also marked as another conspiracy, but it is probably the Divine Anger on us because of our uncontrolled and absurd actions. It is not something created by Homo sapiens to destroy or end the world or by other states to establish their global hegemony and dominate the new world order; rather, it is something by God to show his force and make it visible that natural calamities are always inevitable. Well, most of the population is becoming non-believers, sceptics, and by rejecting religious principles, they have become nihilists. God is handling our whole system, and nothing can work without his permission.
Meanwhile, there’s a section that also believes Covid-19 doesn’t exist; it is just to scare the people out there; individuals are dying natural deaths, and their dead bodies are being linked to the coronavirus in order to get aid from the international community.
Moreover, the accusations of states against each other are badly ruining their interstate relations and creating the feeling of mistrust between them. The world is entangled in the blame game, and economic distancing is creating hurdles for the future of nations. Along with political, social, and economic characteristics of states, the complex interdependence factor is also being seen in its crippling phase.
The concept of complex interdependence in international relations put forth by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye in 1977 is of the view that the states, along with their fortunes, are inextricably tied together, lay stress upon cooperation rather than conflicts, and, with time, states’ dependence on political organisations on an international level, their interactions with international actors, and interdependence enhanced. Additionally, it resulted in favourable and advantageous situations. Furthermore, with the advent of the new world order, or the American World Order, interlinkages of nations and their interstate relationships formed into a new shape, which was later named complex interdependence. It helped to bring about non-violent situations and gestures of goodwill from one state to the other. But, once the balanced state of affairs has been completely tumbled down with the coming on of the Covid-19 deadly virus, which killed many and thrust the rest's lives in jeopardy. It ended the existence of mutual trust and agreements, cooperation, and generated a complete distrust among nations. Conflicts started on the basis of criticising the states to start off the disease, and conspiracy theories contribute on a high level to make the crisis progressively worse and also weaken the interstate relations and impair the complex interdependence factor by spoiling already existing economic, political, and social bonds and structures of the states sustaining the once stable and peaceful international structure.
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