Effects of Covid-19 on cultural relativism and state sovereignty

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has generally affected the attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles of people and states. Although there is still no definitive position on the causes of the new species from the coronavirus family, there have been articles and discussions leading to the blaming of Chinese cultural tradition of eating the meat of bats - mammals which were also considered by scientists as potential transmitters of SARS-CoV-2. To measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the changing attitudes towards the doctrine of cultural relativism, in anthropological and sociological terms and state sovereignty in political terms, respondents from several Western Balkan countries, such as Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina answered a series of questions. The research findings show that changing the attitudes towards cultural relativism and state sovereignty is significantly dependent on bilateral relations between the Western Balkan nations with Chinese Foreign Policy rather than the COVID-19 pandemic.