August 31, 2020
Plagues Are Back. Will Wars Follow?
The suffering inflicted by Covid-19 fits a wider 21st-century pattern: the unexpected return of old pathologies previously thought vanquished by the march of progress, now suddenly back in virulently modern forms.
Until recently, outbreaks of infectious disease were a recurring scourge of civilization. Only in the past few decades did human beings imagine we had escaped this horror.
In geopolitics, as in biology, it turns out that mankind remains susceptible to new strains of old maladies.
Great-power competition, authoritarian alternatives to democracy—these too, not long ago, were presumed to have been safely consigned to the ash heap of history. Yet in geopolitics, as in biology, it turns out that mankind remains susceptible to new strains of old maladies.
Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal.
More from CNAS
-
Commentary
With U.S.-China relations in free fall, the Trump administration’s chief arms control negotiator recently proclaimed that "we know how to win these races and we know how to sp...
By Richard Fontaine & Ely Ratner
-
Commentary
Russia’s botched invasion of Ukraine has befuddled most defense analysts and Russia experts....
By Chris Dougherty
-
Reports
Download the full PDF Executive Summary Until recently, U.S. policymakers and subject matter experts have viewed the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) forcible unification ...
By Stacie Pettyjohn, Becca Wasser & Chris Dougherty
-
Podcast
In Ukraine, the most intense fighting is happening in the eastern part of the country in a region called the Donbas. Right now, Russia is trying to take control of a town call...
By Chris Dougherty