Martín Sarthou, journalist and analyst with a recognized career in international affairs, presented his lecture entitled, "The Academy vs Politics", in a new edition of FREE ZONE TALKS.

In his talk on the new world order measured by the level of success of each government's actions to the COVID-19 crisis, Sarthou said:

Político published weeks ago that "the Pandemic is the end of Trumpism" in the sense that the need for global responses to contagion highlighted the concepts that are traditionally singled out by authoritarian and populist rulers as seeds of evil: scientific knowledge, state administration, and global cooperation and alignment.

We all wonder what is happening to the US and its response to the pandemic, considering it is home to more than half of the universities with the highest science levels, and in turn, it is the country with the highest amount of contagion and deaths.

Clearly, government crisis management has been based more on political science calculations than scientific policies. COVID-19 has exposed in black and white the competence or lack of competence of the governments of each country in the world to implement deep social responses and economic measures impact in times of crisis.

There are not many examples in history that mark that 90% of the world's governments must adopt a radical and unthinking change in their political agenda to govern a new scenario.

The story is written by those who win and that of COVID 19 will be the same. In (nearby) years we will hear that multilateralism, global cooperation and the solidarity of the universal health system were the key to overcoming the crisis.

On the other side of ideological thinking will be the heavy hand, the iron control and the ability of its unquestionable leader which led with determination to success.

If the US and China do not end up arguing about who is to blame for what and are in charge of cooperating so that the system does not collapse then the credibility of the two most powerful poles falls. If the European Union cannot provide good solutions to its 500 million inhabitants, then national governments will demand more local power at the hands of Brussels already quite weakened.

In the midst of that, we see more and more powerful displays of the human spirit. Stories of resilience, solidarity organization and above all things small examples that are great stories of leadership. That's every country in the world. There's the hope left as we get out of this crisis.

You can watch the full chat on our Youtube channel or listen to it on our Spotify Podcast.