Global Issues
Indonesia: Covid-19 crisis reveals cracks in Jokowi’s ad hoc politics
As he rose rapidly from furniture businessman to mayor of Solo and governor of Jakarta to president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo stuck to the same approach to politics: build things,…
Limiting the global economic fallout from Covid-19
Panic has now set in over the Covid-19 global pandemic. The coronavirus is spreading rapidly, especially in Europe and the US, and severe public-health measures are being put in…
Migration: The bargaining power of transit states
Even before concern about the spread of the novel coronavirus Covid-19 took hold, notions of migration “crises” and migration “panic” have been on the rise, partly fuelled by…
Anticipating Covid‑19 in the Pacific
With the confirmation of a coronavirus case in French Polynesia, the Pacific has officially joined the pandemic. The Covid-19 crisis could have dramatic impacts on the small…
Fighting Covid-19: Everyone needs to be their own Sherlock Holmes
Over the past four months as Covid-19 has spread to cities and countries across the world, we’ve been inundated with strange terms and exponentially growing numbers. Names that…
Podcasts
COVIDcast Episode 2: virus is declared a pandemic
COVIDcast is a Lowy Institute pop-up podcast for anyone interested in understanding the effect of coronavirus on global politics. Each week for the next few weeks, Lowy Institute…
Readers respond: Books to collect for Covid-19 quarantine
Earlier this week I asked The Interpreter readers to suggest books related to international affairs that people might look to read in the event of a coronavirus quarantine,…
What a difference six weeks and a viral outbreak make for Donald Trump
Donald Trump doesn’t pretend to care about things he’s not interested in.
When Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services brought him warnings about the spread of the…
Economic diplomacy: Rising risks and missing links in a pandemic
China syndrome
Former Trump administration economic adviser Kevin Hassett had a backhanded compliment for Australia amid this week’s financial market turmoil when he described it…
Covid-19 in China, the US, India: Comparative crisis management 101
Whatever else the rapidly evolving and increasingly global health crisis may or may not do, it’s shining an unforgiving light on the relative capacities of national health systems…