The emergence and spread of COVID-19 has caused incalculable effects, impossible to anticipate globally. The world is going through a great social, political, economic, cultural and health upheaval that, on a large scale, brings out the entire system of hegemonic international relations, excluding the majority of human beings. This issue, in turn, has favored the resignification of the study of international relations and its role in facing and finding consensual solutions to common and global problems, such as COVID-19, a complex, variable and diverse pandemic.

After the emergence of the pandemic, the governments of the world have adopted various measures to stop its spread, new or traditional relationships between multiple states and national actors are also established or strengthened according to the dynamics of different societies and regions. In this context, not only new socio-economic problems but also historically accumulated social problems are visualized, such as: inequality, exclusion, poverty, among others, which undoubtedly justify the inquiry about the challenges faced by international relations in the midst of a world facing an unprecedented health emergency. It is also necessary to explore some trends that guide the understanding of its future dynamics from the field of social sciences.

Reflecting on the world, international relations and the COVID-19 pandemic implies analyzing conjunctural and future challenges that relations between states, governments and other new and traditional actors will face on the occasion of the health crisis, but without ignoring that the roots of this pandemic are plunge into more structural issues, which require a critical and ethical approach, in the face of this global problem, which has become a concrete threat to people, populations, societies, ecosystems and the international relations established in the world.