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Articles

Vol. 2 (2021): Panoply Journal

How Can a Pandemic Interrupt Realism in International Diplomacy?

  • Dominique Batiste
Submitted
27 December 2021
Published
12/27/2021

Abstract

In this paper, I will be executing a literary review on Francis Beer and Robert Hariman’s Nature Plays Last: Realism, Post-Realism, Post Pandemic. The primary argument associated with the literary review asks: How Can a Pandemic Interrupt Realism/ Post-Realism in International Diplomacy?
In this literary review, I will be taking on Beer and Hariman’s approach on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected diplomatic relations and how it caused states to act under a realist theory viewpoint. In this piece, Beer and Hariman collaborate to take on the oldest international relations theory, which is realism, formulates a model, and shows how realist theory has been altered with the induction of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beer and Hariman’s academic collaboration brings into perspective that not only do state and non-state actors play roles, but how external factors, such as natural occurrences or medical conditions, such as a virus, can off-center what we know today as realism theory and how it can be altered by non-human elements.