World War II is considered as the war between distinct ideologies, namely capitalism, communism and fascism. Although thousands of people were killed in the war, both capitalism and communism defeated fascism, paving way for the emergence of a liberal democracy.
With the consequent rise of liberalism, world democracies were strengthened, women were empowered and industrialisation evolved in western countries. Capitalism allowed economic markets to operate freely without the intervention of the government because of which nations were encouraged to trade freely. However, the end of the Cold War and the early 21st century crisis gave the liberal democracy a push to fortify an international system which came to be known as the world order. Soon after, the neo-liberal ideology emerged and despite countless challenges faced by liberal democracies the world over, Western countries adopted the idea with great enthusiasm. As a result, capitalism solidified its place as the dominant ideology of the world order.
With the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic, many international theorists are now predicting the end of the liberal world order, owing to the failure of international and local organisations to contain the spread of the deadly virus. They claim that the pandemic will usher the rise of a new world order after its demise. However, researchers disagree with such predictions since it is still too early to tell what the future may hold. For all we know, the post Covid-19 world could further strengthen the liberal order.
Ghazanfar Soomro
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, August 5th, 2020.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
