The Synergy Between Geopolitics and Biopolitics: COVID-19 Vaccines in Focus

Abstract

The article sheds light on the causes and consequences of the geopolitics of vaccines against COVID-19. The key premise is that in the hybrid international system, geopolitics gets more important than before. In that context, the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccines have turned into power politics tools rather than a medical issue and an asset to save lives. The research sources are mostly media-based, but from a variety of geographical areas, and then are correlated with available academic analyses concerning the so-called pandemopolitics in many parts of the world. The article displays the ongoing tendencies that shape the world: geopolitics externally and biopolitics internally. Private corporations have strengthened their grip on the states and their populations. The outcome of these two combining tendencies (geopolitics and biopolitics) reveals the real power balance: the corporate interest is prevailing, while the State succumbs to authoritarianism.