The MENA region and COVID-19 : impact, implications and future prospects / edited by Zeina Hobaika, Lena-Maria Möller, and Jan Claudius Völkel.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: The MENA region and COVID-19 - concept and content of this book / Zeina Hobaika, Lena-Maria Möller and Jan Claudius Völkel -- The COVID-19 temptation? Sino-Gulf relations and autocratic linkages in times of a global pandemic / Thomas Demmelhuber, Julia Gurol and Tobias Zumbrägel -- The reverse impact of politics on the COVID-19 response : how Hezbollah determined the choices of the Lebanese government / Nassim AbiGhanem -- 'American Corona' vs. 'The Chinese virus' : blaming and othering in Arab media / Carola Richter et al. -- Securitisation dynamics and COVID-19 politics in Morocco : old wine in new bottles? / Giulia Cimini and Beatriz Tomé Alonso -- Status-seeking in times of a global pandemic : the United Arab Emirates' foreign policy during COVID-19 / Alexander Lohse -- Religion and pandemic : state, Islam and society in Saudi Arabia and Iran during the coronavirus crisis / Noël van den Heuvel and Ulrike Freitag -- 'On the horns of a dilemma' : human traffickers, the COVID-19 pandemic and victims of trafficking in Khartoum / Manara Babiker Hassan -- A paradoxal management of COVID-19 in Lebanon : challenges and lessons learnt / Michèle Kosremelli Asmar and Joumana Stephan Yeretzian -- Digital learning under COVID-19 : challenges and opportunities - the Lebanese case / Fadi El Hage and Fouad Yehya -- Conclusions: The MENA region and COVID-19 - lessons for the future / Zeina Hobaika, Lena-Maria Möller and Jan Claudius Völkel.

"The region commonly referred to as Middle East and North Africa (MENA), comprising some of the world's richest countries next to some of the world's poorest, offers excellent insights into the discriminatory consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. While in its early stage, the coronavirus was said to not discriminate between rich and poor concerning its infectiousness, its consequences differ markedly: financially sound societies can afford economic shutdowns, yet citizens in less affluent countries lack the opportunity of not going to work - if they even have the "luxury" of seeing a doctor. Similarly, keeping kids out of school for months can be compensated for (at least partly) through excellent learning conditions at home, but children from families with less resources usually lack the equipment necessary. The multidisciplinary case studies collected in this edited volume reveal that the coronavirus's impact patterns are to a large extent a question of two variables: governance performance and socioeconomic potency. Therefore, while its geographic focus is on the MENA region, the book's analyses go far beyond and have implications for the comparative study of the COVID-19 pandemic and its broad impact on societies around the globe"-- Provided by publisher.