Pandemic Perspectives on Medicine and Militarism

ABSTRACT The past, present and likely future of “pandemic perspectives” are here briefly examined: as embedded in the contemporary structure of speculative-based production, unsustainable path-dependent dynamics augur a difficult future of enhanced ecological ruptures under the current regime of accumulation. This has hastened pandemic moments, now including COVID-19 in 2020. Of particular note is the striking case of the wallowing US beset by multiple “market failures” all along its medical supply chain and an absence of state capacity. Such historic conjunctures have tested the apparatuses of social reproduction: they can force profound restructuring, altering the path of accumulation along with the underlying societal order. This was the case in Western Europe as the ravages of the Black Death (1346–1353) contributed to the destabilization feudalism. However, in its wake, the “second serfdom” flourished in Eastern Europe. Here we analyze, in three linked sections, some aspects of the political economy of infectious disease.