The geopolitical war of vaccines between exports and protectionism
Will the vaccine war strengthen Prime Minister Draghi and will it strengthen Europe? The in-depth study by Francesco D'Arrigo, director of the Italian Institute for Strategic Studies
The loss of credibility of the EU in the management of the pandemic, caused by the halter contracts stipulated with Big Pharma for the purchase of vaccines, by the difficulties in obtaining and distributing the doses, together with the political setback that it is suffering from some member countries attracted by the vaccine diplomacy of Russia and China (two countries with a completely different world view), is representing for the Draghi government a problem of internal management of the vaccination campaign due to the lack of doses, but above all, an opportunity for Italy to strengthen its leadership , both in Europe and globally.
In the wake of the long confrontation with AstraZeneca, while the EU accused the British-Swedish company of not respecting its contractual commitments causing the slowdown of the vaccination campaigns of the member countries, Prime Minister Draghi has decided to enter the geopolitical war with a straight leg of vaccines, taking the decision, later confirmed by the European Commission, to block a shipment of 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca destined for Australia.
A blockade that has caused several international criticisms and the intensification of the disinformation campaign of some states against the EU, even accused of protectionism. Obviously false accusations, considering that despite the blockade, in the last month alone the EU has delivered more than 25 million doses to at least 31 countries around the world, while the same European countries have overall administered only about 21 million vaccines at the level national, due to the severe shortage of available doses caused by non-deliveries of doses by pharmaceutical companies, especially AstraZeneca.
Meanwhile, the modest number of Chinese and Russian deliveries of Sinopharm and Sputnik V to countries like Serbia, Tunisia and Slovakia , for example, have seen local government officials welcome the expeditions with large media campaigns, ostentatious ceremonies at airports, seasoned from enthusiastic praise for Beijing and Moscow.
For decades, the Warsaw Blockade Security Services have been studying a concept called " reflexive control " – the science of how to make your enemies make mistakes. A form of propaganda through which disinformation experts deeply analyze their opponents, to understand from which sources they get their information and why they trust it; then they find ways to manipulate information from those trusted sources in order to insert errors and false information. This way of acting has enormous implications for politicians who do not have adequate analysis ( Intelligence ), because incorrect or manipulated information can "influence" a decision maker to make wrong decisions based on this information for their own political consensus interest. And attention should be maximum in this period, where all Western Information Agencies have warned of the danger represented by the disinformation campaigns in progress, which are exploiting the vaccine issue as a wedge to foment social discord, erode trust in the institutions of public health and arousing distrust of pharmaceutical companies
However, the European approach to vaccine distribution is much more generous even than all of its allies, such as the United States, which are safeguarding domestic supplies and vaccine raw materials and blocking exports to ensure that every American can be vaccinated by the end of May. There is also no comparison with the United Kingdom, which without ever announcing it has imposed a de facto ban on vaccine exports through the “ Britain First ” clause included in its contract with AstraZeneca.
The world leader in Covid-19 vaccination, Israel, has also entered vaccine diplomacy, but only after securing its own population. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just decided to distribute thousands of doses of the vaccine to the troops of the multinational peacekeeping force and observers (MFOs) stationed on the Sinai Peninsula, as a symbol of gratitude to the governments allied to Israel.
So, until Draghi's intervention, the magnanimity of the EU went largely unnoticed, indeed Europe was described as selfish and unable to manage the distribution and access to vaccines even internally. While in reality, Europe is a super power in exporting vaccines as well .
The deliveries of vaccines produced by EU countries take place without the emphasis and the communication and propaganda campaigns that have characterized the shipments of other countries, which have transformed the export of their vaccines into an effective geopolitical tool to which they are, unfortunately, lending the side also some Italian politicians, thus putting at risk the strategy of Italy and the EU, as well as the Western alliance led by the new US administration.
Strategy well explained by Mario Draghi during the recent Eurosummit in videoconference by the heads of state and government of the Union, to which President Biden also intervened, with a relentless pressure where he also supported the possibility (threat to the Biden administration) that Brussels initiates discussions to assess the feasibility of including Sputnik V in the Union strategy.
A clear strategy that demonstrates how Prime Minister Draghi's vaccine diplomacy is declining through his international prestige and the strength of Italian soft power , which in just 6 weeks from the birth of the Government of national unity, have made the country regain its geopolitical role which belongs to it and at the same time is promoting, together with Merkel and Macron, the European model based on democratic values and solidarity.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-guerra-geopolitica-dei-vaccini-tra-export-e-protezionismi/ on Mon, 29 Mar 2021 08:00:32 +0000.