COVID-19 and International Organizations: A Case Study of WHO

Nearly at the end of 2019, the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic posed an all-out challenge to human beings in the 21st century. In fact, it started to jeopardize people’s lives on an international scale. Since it is a global pandemic for which no effective vaccines have been discovered yet, it has involved many international organizations including the World Health Organization. Therefore, the main question is what the WHO—an authorized International organization—would do to conduct a balanced approach for tackling the new threats such as the COVID-19. The current situation necessitates adopting six approaches, i.e. gaining solidarity and accepting responsibility, keeping away the predicament of nationalism, globalism, communitarianism, and cosmopolitanism, identifying security and certainty as the permanent human requirements, avoiding being involved in cultural differences, and trying to end the quarrel between the global leadership and global-regional partnership. Hence, international organizations, especially the WHO, can play a growingly functional role in tackling this global challenge. The pandemic also introduces international sanitary needs that must be addressed from a professionalization perspective rather than a politicization one so that effective efforts will be made accordingly.