The coronavirus crisis has demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of many global systems but has fundamentally challenged individual states, which have responded with contradictory policies grounded in local cultures. In general, education systems and experts have been exposed as inadequate while the information environment has been thoroughly politicized and manipulated. Contrary to a century of expectations, administrative and regulatory states have been shown to be too complex and cumbersome to respond swiftly to a crisis of this magnitude. Decoupling regions and redistributing economic and medical capabilities should be accompanied by a thorough rethinking of the power and responsibilities assigned to states.

While the Western media initially perceived the coronavirus pandemic as exclusively belonging to China, they are now faced with the challenge of covering the crisis as it spreads across the Western world. An analysis of Italian front pages shows that fear is a recurrent feature in news coverage and reveals a delay in journalists’ understanding of the need to adopt difficult measures. Despite the weaknesses of their coverage, their example can perhaps help other Western media not only avoid politicization in a challenging time but also fight the constant stream of fake news spread via social media. 

The coronavirus pandemic caught the Western world unprepared despite all the technology and medical advances available in those countries. What about Iran and the Arab world? How are they coping? These dictatorial states know how to control their populations and suppress both information and unrest, but appear for the most part to have no idea how to fight an invisible virus.

There is little indication that Middle Eastern rulers are learning any lessons from the devastating coronavirus. Nor is there any suggestion that they are willing to see the pandemic as an opportunity to negotiate new social contracts at a time when the virus has temporarily taken the wind out of the sails of mass anti-government protests.

As the coronavirus spreads, so does its likely political fallout. For authoritarians and autocrats, this is likely to be a mixed bag. Some will benefit from invasive tracing and monitoring of those affected by the virus, which is likely to boost the evolution toward a “Big Brother” surveillance state as well as nationalist economic policies propagated by populists and nationalists like Donald Trump. Others are seeing perceived government failures to effectively confront the virus undermine already shaky public trust, which can fuel demands for greater transparency, accountability, and freedom of expression.