New Publication

Under the title "The World System of Vaccine Use: Global Inequalities and Geopolitical Conflicts in the Corona Pandemic", a new research article by Philipp Köncke and Stefan Schmalz appeared in March in PROKLA. Journal for Critical Social Science.

The corona virus knows no national borders. Although the pandemic is a global phenomenon, the resources to cope with the global health crisis are highly unevenly distributed between different countries. Against this background, the authors analyse spatial hierarchies and geopolitical conflict dynamics in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. They show that the asymmetric distribution of resources to fight the COVID-19 crisis between country groups translates into unequal access to vaccines, which consequently constitutes hierarchically structured vaccine worlds. These vaccine worlds have become sites of geopolitical conflict over vaccine production and distribution. The article outlines how American, European and Chinese manufacturing companies in particular compete for spheres of influence and sales markets.