Major powers have been using Covid vaccines - and the desire other states have for access to them - to buy allies and enhance their global reputations. Russia, China, the USA, and the EU have all had different approaches and agendas when it comes to this vaccine diplomacy - and this has been a force in international relations and the global Covid response. In this episode, we discuss this phenomenon and its implications with Dr. Mika Aaltola.  Dr. Aaltola is the Director of FIIA, a tenured professor of International Relations and European Union Affairs at Tallinn University, and holds the rank of docent at Tampere University. He has been a visiting fellow at Cambridge University, Sciences Po (CERI), and Johns Hopkins as well as a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota. His areas of expertise include the U.S. global role, dynamics of major power politics, democratic vulnerability, pandemic security, and Finnish foreign policy. His latest published monograph is Democratic Vulnerability and Autocratic Meddling – The ‘Thucydidean Brink’ in Regressive Geopolitical Competition (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2021).