Global Order in COVID-19 Contagion: A Literary and Philosophical Interpretation

This article interprets the COVID-19 pandemic as a profound existential event that exposed the moral, political, and structural fragilities of the global order. Drawing on existentialist philosophy—Sartre’s ontology of freedom, Camus’ ethics of solidarity, Foucault’s bio- politics, and Agamben’s state of exception—it argues that the pandemic mirrored the human condition of interdependence, anxiety, and moral choice. Through literature and philosophy, crises are revealed as tests of responsibility within constraint, as tensions between freedom and surveillance, sovereignty and solidarity, inequality and justice. The study also integrates Marxian critiques of global capitalism and analyses how vaccine nationalism, digital surveillance, and emergency governance redefined sovereignty and ethics. It concludes by articulating an ‘existential diplomacy’ grounded in recognition, responsibility, and redistributive justice, signalling a movement away from technocratic management towards moral and democratic accountability.