ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the factors that are most likely to determine one set of outcomes or the other and describes roles that can conflict resolvers may play in fostering more inclusive senses of political identity. The rise of nationalism during the current Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was noted by many academics, journalists, and political commentators. Most of them also discuss the increase in discriminatory policies and exclusion of various groups based on their citizenship status or ethnic/religious origin. The academic literature on the relations between pandemics and nationalisms is surprisingly scarce, given that several recent waves of such viral infections as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and Ebola and Zika viruses have occurred. A majority of studies present anti-globalism as a form of political populism that unites the horizontal cultural dimension of xenophobia with its vertical anti-elitist dimensions.
