This book seeks to identify the reasons why some countries were more efficient and effective than others in responding to the COVID 19 pandemic, and why the global community failed to coalesce. What are the political determinants of the different state responses to the pandemic? Why was scientific advice rejected or ignored in many countries? What has been the role, respectively, of neoliberalism, populism, and authoritarianism in the making of Covid-19 policy? What role have each of these factors played in the uneven and clearly inadequate global response to the pandemic?

In an effort to understand why some states failed to handle the pandemic properly, some of the literature suggests that populism is at the root of the current failure of international co-operation. The global financial crisis of 2008-10 triggered significant cooperation within the G-20, led by the combined efforts of the United States and China. These forms of cooperation have clearly disappeared in the context of the pandemic, not only with respect to economic policy but also in public health and management. The authors of this volume link the different state responses to the pandemic-- from its inception to the start of the vaccination campaign, and to the political regimes prevailing in each. In particular, the present volume focuses on a distinction between the responses of neo-liberal regimes, populist regimes and authoritarian ones.

Leila Simona Talani has been Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of European and International Studies at King's College London since 2014. She is the current editor of the Palgrave series: The Politics of Citizenship and Migration.

Alan Cafruny (Ph.D.) Cornell (1983) is Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Affairs at Hamilton College. He is a former series editor (with Herman Schwartz) of the series: Advances in International Political Economy, sponsored by the International PoliticalEconomy Section of the International Studies Association.