International Relations After COVID-19: a Vindication of Realism or Evidence for the Need for New Approaches

History can tell us that the frequency of global transformations of world order accelerates as time passes. As human impact on the limited material world grows to be more visible, the subjective structures of human and state relations change with it. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic influences these transformations to a great extent. However, more important implications of it are to appear afterwards. The predictions build on existing theories. This work attempts to analyse states' behaviours during the pandemic to find the most suitable theoretical framework for reality. Then, it builds a prognosis. This paper suggests that (1) transformative events such as the COVID-19 pandemic transform the discourse, and discourse, in its turn, impacts the international in the most significant way. To prove this hypothesis, one has to ask two questions. First, was the COVID-19 pandemic a transformative event? Second, did the discourse change because of it? This paper will focus on the topic of securitisation to address the latter. If this claim finds its justification, then it will mean that such (2) analytical tools such as constructivism as a method and securitisation as a theory are necessary to address the challenges caused by the pandemic and its aftermath. Despite the essential practical applications of neo-realism and institutional liberalism, transformations of identities and motivations can only be viewed fully through a loose constructivist framework. So, this method argues that vindications of realism were and will be present in states’ behaviour during the pandemic and its immediate aftermath because unpredicted existential threats usually lead to isolationist policies. Nevertheless, the longevity of the crisis makes this option inefficient and even ineffective due to the rise of biological threats, which are, by their nature, global. Once again, cooperation, however with more resilient national economies, will prove its value.