ABSTRACT
Globally, governments have had to contend with political responses ranging from panic to apathy as they strive to find lasting solutions to the economic, health, and social issues resulting from COVID-19. The diversity and controversies surrounding global and individual national responses to COVID-19 have shown how the illusiveness of the ‘rules-based’ world order. Whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organisations have encouraged countries to adhere to COVID-19 protocols including vaccination, some countries, especially those in the Global South, have drawn on nationalist politics to stage ‘anti-vax’ campaigns, promoting other measures defying international pandemic health advice. For example, political leaders such as the Tanzanian President John Magufuli became a ‘COVID-19 denier’ refusing to introduce WHO’s protocols while pursuing a populist governing style promoted as a model, for other African leaders subverted the need for strong institutions backed by multilateral organisations. This chapter draws on nationalist politics to examine the limits of a rules-based world order as it relates to national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania. Drawing on the Tanzanian case, the chapter argues that COVID-19 has helped show that the ‘rules-based’ world order remains elusive in an age of reinvigorated nationalism.
