COVID-19: The pandemic that changed the world and accelerated the emergence of a multipolar order

Written by: Zeljko Sajn for Kosovo Online

The COVID-19 pandemic was far more than a public health crisis. It became a global turning point that transformed economies, international relations, technology, and the way states perceive their own security. Few events in modern history have affected nearly every country in the world simultaneously. As a result, people increasingly speak of the world before and after the pandemic.

According to data from the United Nations and the World Health Organization, the pandemic directly and indirectly claimed millions of lives and triggered the largest global economic disruption since the end of World War II. Millions of people lost their jobs, healthcare systems were pushed to the brink of collapse, and poverty began rising globally for the first time in decades. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the pandemic represented the greatest challenge to the international community since the founding of the United Nations in 1945.

However, perhaps its most significant consequence was neither medical nor economic, but political. The pandemic seriously undermined public trust in institutions, science, the media, and international organizations. Debates over the origin of the virus, the laboratory leak theory, vaccines, lockdown measures, and restrictions on civil liberties created deep divisions that remain visible today.

Particular attention in recent years has been drawn to information emerging from U.S. institutions. The release of new data regarding the funding of coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology has reignited questions about the accountability of scientific and political structures. Should it be proven that certain information was known but withheld from the public or legislative bodies, serious questions of political and legal responsibility would arise. Consequently, the debate surrounding COVID-19 is no longer solely a medical issue; it has also become a matter of institutional transparency, public accountability, and citizens' trust in government.

The pandemic also brought the issue of corruption into focus. In many countries, investigations were launched into public procurement procedures involving medical equipment, vaccines, and emergency contracts worth billions of dollars and euros. The European Parliament, national legislatures, and judicial authorities in several countries examined whether certain pandemic-related decisions had been made outside standard procedures. This opened a new legal debate on how accountability can be ensured during states of emergency.

At the same time, COVID-19 accelerated the technological revolution. Digitalization, remote work, telemedicine, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence advanced more rapidly than anticipated. Governments realized that laboratories, pharmaceutical industries, data, and technological independence were becoming just as important to national security as military capabilities, energy resources, and strategic raw materials.

The geopolitical consequences of the pandemic may ultimately prove to be its most enduring legacy. Many experts argue that COVID-19 did not create a multipolar world, but it significantly accelerated its emergence. While the United States sought to preserve its leading role in the international system, China continued its economic and technological rise. Russia persisted in advocating the concept of multipolarity and the central role of the United Nations, while India further strengthened its position as an emerging global power.

Today, discussions increasingly focus on a new geopolitical balance among Washington, Beijing, Moscow, and New Delhi. Although their interests are not identical, all recognize that the world is rapidly moving away from a model in which a single power determines the rules of the international order. This is precisely why the question of the pandemic's origins carries broader significance. It affects not only relations between the United States and China, but also trust among states, the credibility of international institutions, and the future rules of global governance.

Europe emerged from the pandemic facing new challenges. The energy crisis, inflation, security tensions, and the war in Ukraine have placed additional strain on European economies. Calls for greater strategic autonomy within the European Union and reduced dependence on external centers of power are becoming increasingly frequent.

For the Balkans, and Serbia in particular, these changes are of special importance. The region once again finds itself at the crossroads of major economic, energy, and transportation corridors. In a world that is becoming increasingly multipolar, the countries of the Balkans are faced with the need to carefully balance relations among various political and economic centers of power.

Official Belgrade seeks to pursue a policy of military neutrality while simultaneously developing relations with the European Union, the United States, Russia, China, India, and the BRICS countries. Such a position presents numerous challenges, but also certain advantages in a rapidly changing world. Under these new circumstances, a state's strength will no longer be measured solely by military power, but also by the quality of its institutions, legal certainty, technological development, and its ability to safeguard national interests.

For this reason, COVID-19 remains far more than a pandemic. It has become a symbol of the end of one era and the beginning of another. Whether history will remember this period as the moment a new multipolar world emerged or as a missed opportunity for global cooperation remains to be seen. What is already certain, however, is that the pandemic changed the course of history and that the world that followed is no longer the same.