Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies · 2020 · 13 citations · 0 references
PlanningInternational LawInternational RelationsDisaster GovernanceDisaster PreparednessInternational Humanitarian LawInternational Disaster GovernancePandemic PreparednessPandemic ResponseResilience GovernanceRisk GovernanceSocial VulnerabilityActorsClosure Of International InstitutionsInstitutional Performance FrameworksInstitutional Policy FrameworksInternational Disaster LawInternational Security InstitutionsPossible FuturesRisks Framework
Abstract This paper explores the ongoing Covid -19 pandemic through the framework of existential risks – a class of extreme risks that threaten the entire future of humanity. In doing so, we tease out three lessons: (1) possible reasons underlying the limits and shortfalls of international law, international institutions and other actors which Covid -19 has revealed, and what they reveal about the resilience or fragility of institutional frameworks in the face of existential risks; (2) using Covid -19 to test and refine our prior ‘Boring Apocalypses’ model for understanding the interplay of hazards, vulnerabilities and exposures in facilitating a particular disaster, or magnifying its effects; and (3) to extrapolate some possible futures for existential risk scholarship and governance.