fundamentally than ever. That means the person
two doors down presents in the same way as
the one two continents away — as a pixelated
image on a screen.
“I could see the shift to online work actually
encouraging links around the world,” says
Stephen L.S. Smith, an economist at Hope College
in Michigan who focuses on global trade. “It could
end with a deeper globalization, but one that was
more cognizant with security risks.”
That’s the question in a post-virus United
States, a more distilled version of its pre-COVID
counterpart: How to shape the American place
in the world to benefit as many as possible
without compromising the control and
sovereignty so valued by many in a land that
sometimes considers itself an exception to
global rules?
“If the pandemic teaches us nothing else,
it shows that we are all in this together. We
are all vulnerable to forces like this,” says
Betty Cruz, president and CEO of the World
Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, which fosters
international engagement.
“Insularity isn’t something that we can afford.
Period,” Cruz says. “The entire nation can’t afford
to not be globally connected. So it’s not how do
we get back to normal, but how do we create a
new normal with connections that are deeper
than before?”