The COVID–19 pandemic led to debates within International Relations (IR) as to the extent to which it would cause a rupture in the so-called liberal international order (LIO). This article is concerned with why such a rupture did not occur and draws on theories of racial capitalism to answer this question. It explores the political economy of three dynamics of the global response to the pandemic—lockdowns, border controls and vaccine distribution—and argues that rather than causing a rupture, COVID–19 has reinscribed various domestic and global racial hierarchies. The global divisions of labour and hierarchies of expendability that manifested in the unequal burdens of COVID–19; the border policies that both included and excluded based on racialized notions of who carries disease and the necessity of keeping capital in circulation; and the intellectual property regime and profit motives of pharmaceutical companies that led to inequitable vaccine distribution, are all intimately linked with key ideational and material institutions of the LIO. By drawing theories of racial capitalism into the IR literature on global health, the article points to the need for domestic and global health policy to address the deep-rooted racial inequities that characterized the COVID–19 pandemic ahead of future disease outbreaks.

中文翻译：

---

重新划分全球等级制度：COVID-19、种族资本主义和自由国际秩序

COVID-19 大流行引发了国际关系 (IR) 内部的争论，即它会在多大程度上导致所谓的自由国际秩序 (LIO) 破裂。这篇文章关注的是为什么没有发生这种破裂，并利用种族资本主义的理论来回答这个问题。它探讨了全球应对大流行病的三种动力——封锁、边境管制和疫苗分发——的政治经济学，并认为 COVID-19 并没有造成破裂，而是重新确立了国内和全球的各种种族等级制度。COVID-19 不平等负担所体现的全球劳动分工和消耗等级；基于谁携带疾病的种族化观念和保持资本流通的必要性，既包括又排除的边境政策；以及导致疫苗分配不公平的制药公司的知识产权制度和利润动机，都与 LIO 的关键思想和物质制度密切相关。通过将种族资本主义理论引入有关全球健康的 IR 文献，该文章指出国内和全球卫生政策需要在未来疾病爆发之前解决根深蒂固的种族不平等现象，这些种族不平等现象是 COVID-19 大流行的特征。