Proximity and competition: Vaccine diplomacy in the Atlantic space (Eduard Soler, Marixe Ruiz)

Abstract:  “Vaccines have suddenly been incorporated into the foreign policy toolbox of global and regional powers. This article analysess the strategies of producers and recipients of vaccines in the Atlantic Space. It concludes that COVID-19 has reinforced previous trends regarding regional cooperation and global geopolitical competition. In that vein, the Atlantic space has been a laboratory for both cooperation and competition initiatives among vaccine producers and recipient countries. Although material interests have been a major driver in shaping preferences and strategies, this article suggests that symbolic and normative factors also contributed to the configuration of vaccine diplomacies of producers and recipients.”

Keywords: Geopolitics, Vaccines, Atlantic, COVID-19

 Proximity and Competition: Vaccine diplomacy in the Atlantic space

About the authors:

Eduard Soler i Lecha is Associate Professor in International Relations, Autonomous University of Barcelona, and former Senior Associate Researcher at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) | eduard.soler@uab.cat

Marixe Ruiz de Austri Arexolaleiba is researcher at LANKI, Institute of Co-operative Research of Mondragon University | mruizdeaustri@mondragon.edu

See also:

“CIDOB In conversation with Rafael Vilasanjuan, director de Análisis y Desarrollo Global, ISGlobal“, the video in which the author speaks about the “Geopolitics of Health”, theme of his paper for the JMAN2 (video held in Spanish).

“Pandemic, Vaccines and Power“, the opinion piece by Eduard Soler that became an additional paper for the project after the contributions and feedbacks obtained during the JMAN2 webinars.