2020 was the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the most significant global pandemic since the ‘Spanish flu’ in 1918-1919. This book provides an analysis of the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in a range of Commonwealth countries during 2020, covering public health, political, economic and international aspects.
The Commonwealth, within which about one quarter of the world’s population resides, provides a cross-section of the global experience of COVID-19. The Commonwealth ranges from highly populated countries such as India and Nigeria, to small island states and territories, encompassing also advanced industrialised countries and developing countries. The grouping also extends into many different regions of the world: Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania. In the first year of the pandemic, vaccines were still under development and national response strategies chosen by Commonwealth countries were diverse, spanning eradication, elimination, suppression and mitigation. The chapters in this book show the ways in which governments from a selection of Commonwealth countries responded to the multiple dimensions of the crisis, pointing to the factors that led to effective or less effective policies.
This book originally appeared as a special issue of The Round Table.
Introduction: COVID-19 in the Commonwealth
Derek McDougall and Suan Ee Ong
1. In, but not of, Africa: a divided South Africa faces COVID-19
Steven Friedman
2. Canada and COVID-19: the longer-term geopolitical implications
Kim Richard Nossal
3. India’s domestic and foreign policy responses to COVID-19
Pradeep Taneja and Azad Singh Bali
4. COVID-19, Brexit and the United Kingdom – a year of uncertainty
Julie Smith
5. COVID-19 in Nigeria
Noo Saro-Wiwa
6. Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore: common threads, divergences, and lessons learned in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic
Kyaw San Wai, Wai Yee Krystal Khine, Jane Mingjie Lim, Pearlyn Hui Min Neo, Rayner Kay Jin Tan and Suan Ee Ong
7. Impacts of COVID-19 in the Commonwealth Caribbean: key lessons
Jessica Byron, Jacqueline Laguardia Martinez, Annita Montoute and Keron Niles
8. Australia and New Zealand: the pandemic Down Under
Derek McDougall
9. COVID-19 in the Pacific Island Commonwealth: microstates managing a macro-challenge
Richard Herr
10. COVID-19 and tourism in Pacific SIDS: lessons from Fiji, Vanuatu and Samoa?
John Connell
11. COVID-19 and the British Overseas Territories: a comparative view
Matthew C. Benwell, Peter Clegg and Alasdair Pinkerton
Biography
Derek McDougall specialises in Asia-Pacific international politics, with particular reference to Australian engagement. He is the author of Asia-Pacific in World Politics (2016). He is a frequent contributor to The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs and serves on the journal’s international advisory board.
Suan Ee Ong has an academic background in political science and public health. She is a senior researcher and member of senior management at Research for Impact, a Singapore-based social, behavioural and health research organisation. She also holds honorary fellowships at the National University of Singapore’s School of Public Health and the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy in Malaysia.
