Covid-19, National Images, and Implications for Global Leadership

Covid-19 remains the most discussed topic of 2020 and will remain a landmark for years, if not centuries to come. It will be likely to be a watershed event defining international relations and global leadership, testing the capacity of various governments to deal with the pandemic and their positions in international relations. Before the heath crisis erupted, the United States, EU, Russia and China have been identified as influential forces in international relations. How Covid-19 affects the status and image of these entities will be a factor to be reckoned with in the study of major power relations. This research purports to study the national images of China, the United States and Russia among the EU countries before and after the eruption of Covid-19. The sources of improvements or deterioration of these images will be further studied along political and economic factors. The results of this study will provide implications for potential alignment and realignment of international politics in the long-term trend of global leadership as well as short-term repositions of the EU, United States, China and Russia.