ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Steven Ratuva discusses human security cooperation with a particular focus on regional and community responses to COVID-19. He focuses on COVID-19 because, first, the pandemic overrode other aspects of human security to become the main focus of global, regional, national and local resource allocation, and second, COVID-19 exacerbated other pre-existing human security issues such as poverty, health, communal fractures and anxiety. Ratuva considers how regional and local cooperation was a major political, social and moral strength in addressing the pandemic and its consequences on Pacific communities. This cooperation took two forms. The first was pandemic-specific aid by external partners, and the second was the process of social solidarity connection and resilience building at the local level. He argues that, although the two were different processes with different dynamics, they both contributed to addressing broader human security issues relating to the pandemic at different levels and in different ways.
