Rhetorics of the crisis
Bettina Böhm, Claire Saillour (Eds.)
Authors: Christoph M. Abels, Lukas Baake, Bettina Böhm, Paul Dießelberg, Isabel Hartwig, Lukas Hochscheidt, Luisa Kern, Ricarda Lindau, Esther Luigi, Luisa Podsadny, J.S., Claire Saillour, Dr. Anastasia Vishnevskaya-Mann, Sidra Yousaf
The rhetoric of the crisis – a global overview of foreign policy communications during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a dramatic influence on the rhetoric and foreign communication of states around the globe. “The rhetoric of the crisis” provides an overview of foreign policy dimensions of the corona-events. Fourteen authors looked at twelve countries on five continents to reveal patterns and shifts in foreign narratives and power aspirations. It is no surprise that Twitter is the platform politicians use to reach out to a domestic and an international audience. But it is striking how the lines between the internal and the external are blurring. State leaders are using the health crisis to deflect from their own failures and to fuel pre-existing conflicts. China has been pushing the narrative that it has mastered the pandemic and at the same time positions itself as a strong global leader in opposition to the US. But other states also pursue their power aspirations on a regional level. In this publication it becomes clear that the COVID-19 pandemic reveals and accelerates power shifts in international relations.
