Politics of Populism and Pandemic

Lyceum the Postgraduate Student’s Association of the Department of International Studies, Political Science and History successfully conducted a Panel Discussion on the topic ‘Politics of Populism and Pandemic’. The six panellists comprised of students from the first and second years of Masters in International Studies, the discussion was moderated by Judith Blessy from 2MAIS. Wonchibeni Patton from 2MAIS talked about the implications of Vaccine Nationalism in a globalized world, wherein she addressed the idea of ‘my nation first’; a phenomenon visible in the vaccination procurement drive undertaken by the ‘first world nations’. However, in her opinion this policy is questionable and futile; until developing countries are unable to bring the transmission process under control, the world would not be free of the pandemic. Other dimensions such as Russia and China’s soft power with regards to vaccine diplomacy, changing attitudes towards migration due to paucity of vaccines were also brought into the foray. The discussion then moved towards analyzing the impact of the pandemic on rising inequalities, the speaker Sneha M from 2MAIS talked about the various social disparities brought about by the onset of a global pandemic such as soaring global poverty, the rise of ethnic inequalities and increasing gender inequalities. Anagha Laxmi from 4MAIS talked about ‘Populism, Localism and the UN wherein the speaker located the influence that populism now holds over the discipline of International relations and its effect on International Organizations. The course of the panel discussion then moved towards a discourse on the topic ‘UN reforms for a post-pandemic World’ wherein Animesh Bhandarkar from 4 MAIS extensively discussed reforms to the Security Council, bottom-up approach for addressing the issue of climate change, rebuilding UN’s legitimacy and a focus on ‘big’ but not forgetting the ‘real’ issues at hand. The floor was then given to Johann Cherian from 2 MAIS who intricately brought about the various dimensions between vaccine diplomacy and India’s rise at the UN. He brought into focus India’s valuable role in developing the vaccine and its donation to the neighboring countries. He also threw light on the inherent cost-effectiveness of Indian vaccines that can make them an indispensable tool to fight the pandemic globally. The final presentation of the day comprised of a discussion on ‘Rise of Populism and its implications on the world order’ which as the title suggests sought to bring into focus the response of populist governments to the pandemic. The speaker Rielza Tilling Bamin from 2MAIS also used the theories of ‘culture backlash’ and economic distress’ to derive the basic nature of populist governments across the globe. Finally, the vote of thanks was proposed by Vineeth Daniel Vinoy from 2MAIS who thanked the department for supporting this program. Overall, the programme was incredibly informative and provided a rich array of perspectives for a topic which is incredibly relevant in the international fora. Report by: Kasvi Batra 2 MAIS