Right now, it is hard to imagine a greater threat to the world’s well-being than the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 23 million people have tested positive for the virus—likely just a fraction of the actual spread—and more than 800,000 have died. The pandemic has battered the global economy, with the World Bank predicting global GDP to drop by more than 5 percent this year, a true worldwide depression far worse than the downturn in 2008 and 2009.
But COVID-19 is not the biggest threat the world faces. An even greater danger today is rising nationalism, which threatens to undermine international cooperation on vital issues including not only global public health but climate change and trade. And government responses to the pandemic, which have focused on border closings, travel bans, and reshoring the production of medical and other goods, are fueling the narrative that foreign people and foreign goods are a source of danger and vulnerability. As governments struggle to control the pandemic, they urgently need to shift direction and embrace cooperative responses, rather than building walls to the rest of the world. That includes moving forward more quickly on reopening their borders.
