Argument
An expert’s point of view on a current event.
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U.S. soldiers wearing gas masks wait for orders during a chemical warfare exercise in Yeoncheon near the North Korea-South Korea border on Feb. 26, 2003. America’s Pandemic War Games Don’t End Well
One simulation of an uncontrolled disease outbreak concluded with riots and the National Guard on the streets.
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Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi are greeted by South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa Coronavirus Has Started a Censorship Pandemic
Governments around the world are banning fake news about the crisis—and cracking down on their critics while they’re at it.
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A construction site of a new COVID-19 hospital outside Moscow For Now, China Has Forgiven Russia for Rebuffing It Over the Coronavirus
Moscow closed the border and banned Chinese citizens in an attempt to stop the pandemic. Now, Beijing has reached out a hand by sending medical aid to Russia.
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Female inmates in Brazil The World’s Most Dangerous Coronavirus Lockdowns
As some democracies try to lesson the pandemic’s effect on prison populations, dictatorships around the world are doing the opposite.
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A man and his family walk past closed vegetable stalls. The Coronavirus Could Topple Governments Around the World
The coronavirus pandemic might not disrupt politics in wealthy Western democracies, but it is likely to unleash political instability—and even regime change—in developing countries already suffering from an economic crisis.
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A monitor displays a patient's vital signs in the intensive care unit at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney on March 9, 2007. Coronavirus and the Limits of Economics
Why standard economic theories have no answers for this kind of crisis.
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomes Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban Coronavirus and the Dawn of Post-Democratic Europe
Hungary has used the pandemic to abandon its last vestiges of democracy—and to dare the EU to do anything about it.
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From left: Chinese President Xi Jinping; He Lifeng, the chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission; Italian Labor and Industry Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio; and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte attend a signing ceremony following their meeting at Villa Madama in Rome on March 23, 2019. China Isn’t Helping Italy. It’s Waging Information Warfare.
The populist Five Star Movement has become China’s chief enabler as Beijing spreads disinformation about the origins of the coronavirus while sending aid shipments to EU countries where it seeks influence.
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Doctors in New York test hospital staff with flu-like symptoms for COVID-19. The U.S. Government Must Prepare Now for the Next Pandemic
Trump botched the coronavirus response. The United States cannot make the same mistake again.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping Narendra Modi’s Sisyphean Quest for Global Coronavirus Cooperation
India’s prime minister is pushing for a regional response while facing a growing crisis at home.
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U.S. President Donald Trump holds up tweets from Google Google Wants Your Data in Exchange for a Coronavirus Test
Public health shouldn’t mean surrendering privacy to Silicon Valley.
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President Xi Jinping arrives at a meeting of the National People's Congress China Will Do Anything to Deflect Coronavirus Blame
Don’t mistake different messages for division within the party.
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Palestinian painters work on a mural to draw attention to the novel coronavirus pandemic in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on March 28. It’s Up to Israel to Stop a Coronavirus Catastrophe Among Palestinians
The Palestinian health care system has been held back by military occupation and is unprepared for the coronavirus onslaught. Israel must act swiftly.
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A military patrol walks past the empty Louvre Pyramid in Paris on March 28. The country has introduced fines for people caught violating its nationwide lockdown measures intended to stop the spread of COVID-19. Authoritarianism in the Time of the Coronavirus
The pandemic offers dictators—and democracies alike—an opportunity for abuse.
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A group of migrant workers and laborers walk toward Uttar Pradesh as the nationwide lockdown continues over the coronavirus. Social Distancing Is a Privilege
For a daily laborer in Mumbai, staying home means “my children and my wife will die.”
