Our guest speaker will be Mark S. Williams, PHD, Professor of Political and Global Studies for Vancouver Island University. He will give some insights into understanding how pandemics have influenced the world in the past and the future.
Pandemics in a World on Fire: The Great Influenza of 1918 and Covid-19
Covid occurred with the rules-based international order eroding. The Great Influenza was born into a world on fire. Less than a month into the closures caused by Covid in early 2020, Richard Haass, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations presciently said, “Covid-19 will not so much change the basic direction of world history as accelerate it.” Covid and the Great Influenza physically suffocated people, just as it figuratively stole oxygen from international cooperation. These two pandemics show how crises accelerates the course of history, affects both the balance of power and the legitimacy of political authority, and in their aftermath, leaving a world that is more anarchic, volatile, discontented and dangerous environment for Canada and the globe.
https://www.markswilliams.ca
If you would like to attend our meeting as a guest please contact our Membership Coordinator Email: Club Registrar
