“The US-led liberal international order has been unravelling for some time, prior to the pandemic and well before the presidency of Donald Trump. Global governance is becoming more contested and multipolar, small states are increasingly hedging their bets by seeking public and private goods from patrons other than the United States and its allies, and new transitional movements are contesting the liberal values and norms associated with US-led global leadership. COVID-19 has served to accelerate many of these trends, but also underscored some important global perceptions about shortcomings of US leadership.”
Read more in the opinion piece by Alexander Cooley written for the Valdai Discussion Club.