Introduction

This chapter surveys why the Covid-19 pandemic took the world order by surprise. The primary explanation is rooted in the decaying International Liberal Economic Order and the rise of an Authoritarian Liberal Order. The pandemic largely spread due to fundamental flaws in how the global political economy has been structured in the last 30 years—austerity, privatisation, urban-centrism, trade, tourism, and financial architecture. Thus, Covid-19 demonstrates how vulnerable the global neoliberal capitalist system has become in producing and facilitating the spread of infectious diseases. This chapter then evaluates potential future situations and questions how far and in what ways the Covid-19 pandemic could structure or restructure the global political economy, capitalism, neoliberalism, and social reproduction. Finally, this chapter gives an overview of how the book will unfold on a chapter-by-chapter basis and highlights the primary findings in each one.