The Covid-19 Pandemic:Continuity and Change in the International Political Economy

As Covid-19 disrupts political and economic arrangements around the world,International Political Economy (IPE) is uniquely positioned to reflect on the pandemic’s global economic and financial impact. To explore what IPE research can bring to the table, we situate state and market crisis responses within patterns of continuity and change in core structures of the international political economy as well as developments in everyday life. Spanning themes from the role of industrial animal farming and global value chains in spreading the virus to how the pandemic affects foreign aid, the politics of IMF aid disbursements, distributional conflicts within the European Union and surveillance capitalism, we outline research agendas for scholars and students of International Relations and International Political Economy to examine the origins, spread and responses to Covid-19 in years to come.