The Turbulent 2020s: Pandemic, Great-Power Rivalry, and the War in Ukraine

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 disease, was first identified in the city of Wuhan, China, in late 2019, and the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global pandemic in March 2020. Numerous governments implemented lockdown measures, mobility restrictions, and border closures, and the pandemic triggered a severe global economic contraction during 2020, considered one of the most significant since World War II, prompting massive fiscal and monetary stimulus programs worldwide. Vaccines were developed in an extraordinarily short timeframe, building on prior advances in messenger RNA technology, and massive vaccination campaigns were rolled out globally from early 2021 onward, though with significantly unequal distribution between developed and developing nations. The pandemic significantly accelerated pre-existing trends toward remote work, e-commerce, and digitalization, caused major disruptions to global supply chains, and generated significant political debate over the balance between public-health measures and individual freedoms; the World Health Organization declared the end of the international health emergency in May 2023.