Covid-19
The Covid-19 is a worldwide pandemic which is affecting the entire world economy since it has paralyzed the normal way of life in the whole globe. Since the first infections during late last year, the coronavirus has continued to spread across the world where it has affected all the six continents of the world. The WHO declared the crisis a world pandemic on March 1, 2020. The pandemic has since become a global emergency due to its effect on the world population and the economy. Currently, the global number of infections is approximately 9.1 million, with about 474,000 fatalities. According to the scenario simulations of the IMF, it is anticipated that global growth will drop by 0.5 per cent for the year 2020. Also, it was anticipated that the global economy might enter a recession by the first half of 2020 due to the effect of the Covid-19 on the global economy. For instance, in Qatar, the pandemic has affected its economy while also rendering employees jobless. Qatar is home to over two million migrant workers, and it currently has one of the highest rates of infection per capita in the globe. The increase in the number of infections in Qatar has consequently affected the economy by increasing the rate of unemployment since low-wage migrants were laid off from their jobs. Additionally, the rising rate of infection prompted the Qatari government to impose various measures like shutting down non-essential business activities, testing along with strict cordon sanitaire to control the spread of the virus in Qatar. The cordon sanitaire mainly aimed at confining the migrant workers under one zone to prevent the spread of the virus. This research paper offers a discussion on the geopolitical, economic and social dimensions of Covid-19 with a key focus being placed on Qatar.
Research issue
The geopolitical, economic and social dimensions of Covid-19
Study area
Qatar state
Research goal
The goal of the research is to locate and describe the geopolitical, economic and social dimensions of Covid-19 to offer more intuition and understanding about the pandemic and its effect on the economy.
Discussion and Research outcomes
Geopolitical dimension of coronavirus
Geopolitics is the knowledge of designing and creating actors’ approaches to fulfil interests and goals based on the geographical sources of authority. The geopolitical researchers habitually strive to the most suitable strategy for the actors in distinct ways depending on the geographical resources of the actors, authority. Based on the views of the geopolitical scientist on the Covid-19 pandemic, two approaches can be used to explain the dimension of the crisis. The first approach will be in terms of governments who have considered the pandemic as a new powerful rival for themselves along with other nations that have challenged the global environment. The first approach states that in an attempt to deal with the coronavirus, the governments have embraced a strategy of enhancing convergent and interactive connections with other actors to overcome the virus.
The second approach of the geopolitical scientist view of Covid-19 is based on the group of governments that have considered the pandemic as a new powerful actor who is the handwork of the rival actor who has challenged their global space and power. Hence based on the geopolitical dimension, Covid-19 is perceived as a powerful actor which challenges the global power and space of countries across the world. For instance, based on the dimension, Qatar could view the pandemic as a powerful rival which challenges its dominance in the Gulf region in terms of the production of oil. The pandemic has adversely affected oil production in Qatar, thereby affecting the quantity of the oil that it ships to the external market. It is anticipated that the cut in oil production due to coronavirus, will lead to a sharp decline in the overall economic output together with a fresh recession in non-oil economies in the GCC.
The decline in oil production and prices will also result in a sharp rise in fiscal deficit since most of the GCC regions are expected to post a financial deficit of about 15-25 per cent of the GDP in 2020. Qatar alone is expected to have a fiscal deficit of approximately 8 per cent of GDP. The effect of the pandemic on the GCC particularly on Qatar lowers its political space and dominance in the GCC since it largely depends on oil as its source of revenue which has made it among the wealthiest nations in the GCC region. Therefore, based on the geopolitical dimension, Covid-19 pandemic is viewed in Qatar as a superior actor which challenge the global environment of Qatar by threatening its global space and power. Thus, to maintain global space and power, the government of Qatar must impose strict measures like the corridor Sanitaire and lock-down to prevent the spread of the virus. Controlling the spread of the virus will, in turn, assist in mitigating its impact on the Qatar economy, and this will consequently assist the country in maintaining its global space and power.