The Coronavirus and “The End of History”

Author:

Leonid Fituni

Abstract:

The author reviews some radical economic, political and philosophical assessments of the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on world development, which became very widespread in the first half of 2020. He concludes that most of them are basically a repetition of the assumptions and forecasts put forward immediately during and right after many previous economic crises and shocks of the world and public order, starting with the collapse of the USSR and including the 2008–2010 global financial and economic crisis. The real consequences of the cataclysms always depended and often stemmed from the behaviour of the national and global elites during the crisis. At the beginning of 2020, the reaction of the world ruling elites to the COVID-19 pandemic brought closer the onset of the emerging global economic crisis. Currently, a struggle is under way between global players, who anticipate a radical change in the balance of power in the world in their favor and those who, on the whole, would be satisfied with maintaining the “pre-coronavirus” balance of forces and interests. In this context, Russia does not have many strategic alternatives. In both of the options described as Project “globalization 2.0”, the subordinate position and the role of a raw materials supplier are prescribed to the country. The only valid option for a further development strategy is a radical revision of the basic concepts of the last 35 years of development and the adoption of the concept of self-sufficiency, centered exclusively on the interests of Russia.

Keywords:

world development, elites, developing countries, international economic relations, sanctions, self-sufficiency, self-reliance

DOI:

10.31132/2412-5717-2020-51-2-5-13

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