Brace yourself for much more political drama

The new coronavirus, or Covid-19, has already upended global financial markets. The havoc it's wreaking on global politics is only just beginning, and politics don't bounce back as easily or as quickly as markets do.

As the last few weeks have made clear, the world in 2020 is nowhere near ready to launch a coordinated, comprehensive response in the coronavirus battle. In an era of "my nation first" politics, it is also an era of "my nation first" responses to the greatest global health crisis the world has seen in recent memory. The coronavirus is, in other words, the first true crisis of our current GZero era of geopolitics.

Compare the world's response to the coronavirus to the way it tackled the great financial crisis of 2008-09. Faced with a catastrophic event, world leaders came together to chart a united way forward, and while there was no shortage of economic...