Something a little different from me in @politico -- a look at how regular and worsening pandemics will likely re-shape the Middle East and broader global trade. I've always kept an eye to circa-2050s futurology and the idea of a rollback of globalization politico.com/news/magazine/… 
@politico From my vantage point, Middle Eastern countries are among the most exposed and vulnerable to pandemic, combining a crossroads/land brigade position with weak, deceptive governments and generous soft-hearted peoples.
@politico A severing of international movement of people over an extended period or repetitive pandemics would have some profound effects in the Middle East. Economies and perhaps religious rituals might have to re-imagine themselves.
@politico Often in my work, I can detect how tired Middle Easterners are of the know-it-all outside voices. Well, a pandemic-driven contraction would force some painful but perhaps beneficial self-reliance on the region
@politico Likewise, if you fear the loss of local culture and the tyranny of same-ness everywhere, that stultifying side of globalization, you might like some aspects of pandemic-driven contraction.
@politico It is hard to imagine large, populous, badly-run states faring well in the pandemic era. Compact, authoritarian or otherwise cohesive states may fare better. Easy to imagine who does well and who doesn't in the Middle East.
@politico There's an isolationist trend in America that think they would like a contraction-type world just fine -- no more messy world to police, shut the borders. It probably won't be that simple. Thread ends.
