Pandemic Protectionism: Revisiting the 1918 “Spanish” Flu in the Era of COVID-19

Abstract

The pandemic protectionist politics of 2020 have exposed the globalist sages of the 1990s as false prophets. Today’s pandemic protectionism suggests that the pugnacity of nationalism over the last few decades has culminated in its triumph, solidifying the ideology’s position as the most powerful and persistent of the modern world.The pandemic has not only vividly highlighted the widespread nationalistic embrace of protectionism, it has also exacerbated the mounting tensions wrought from greater interdependence. Historicizing and contextualizing the pandemic will require more than an origin story; it will also need historical lessons and comparisons. And considering that the global influenza pandemic of a century ago—the “Spanish” Flu of 1918–19—shares many similar characteristics with today’s, it seems like an obvious starting point. To what extent do contemporary calls for economic self-sufficiency compare to the foreign economic policy fallout from the “Spanish” Flu? Did this previous pandemic similarly undermine global supply chains and exacerbate xenophobia, immigration restrictions, and trade wars? And how might the “Spanish” Flu have fed into the Republican preference for unilateralism over international cooperation in the 1920s? Put another way, to what extent did the “Spanish” Flu contribute to the economic nationalist uptick in the United States during and immediately after the Great War?