Published daily by the Lowy Institute

Debates

Understand the full story. Debates bring together articles on a single theme, engaging multiple viewpoints on key issues.

Debate Topic

Developing resistance: Emergent nations and Covid-19
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1

Australia should donate surplus vaccine to Indonesia

Josh Burns

2

Indonesia: painted politics

Stania Puspawardhani

3

Diagnosing Indonesia’s health challenges

Ariane Utomo , Firman Witoelar

4

Covid crisis deepens in junta-ruled Myanmar

David Hopkins

5

Aiding the Pacific during Covid: An update

Roland Rajah , Alexandre Dayant

6

Thailand’s overcrowded prisons hit by Covid-19 surge

David Hopkins

7

Fiji: Cannabis should be high on the government’s agenda

Samantha Cook

8

India’s Covid-19 wave is spreading south

Lesley Branagan

9

Philippines community pantries give help – and send a message

Andrea Chloe Wong

10

India’s power illusion

Anita Inder Singh

11

Lockdown déjà vu in the Philippines

Michael Beltran

12

The Quad gives a boost to India’s vaccine diplomacy

Teesta Prakash

13

Vaccine hesitancy and the risks in rural Papua New Guinea

Mikaela Seymour

14

Vaccine nationalism: Rich nations must also care for the poor

Andrea Chloe Wong

15

Helping Indonesia’s children in a time of pandemic

Dian Maya Safitri

16

Covering the Covid shock on The Interpreter in 2020

The Interpreter

17

Avoiding a “lost decade” in the Pacific

Roland Rajah , Alexandre Dayant

18

Putting real Australian money on the table to help Indonesia

Roland Rajah

19

In post-Covid recovery, hidden costs of going green

Awidya Santikajaya

20

Singapore and Sri Lanka: Newfound opportunities amid Covid-19 pandemic

Roshni Kapur , Chulanee Attanayake

21

In Bangladesh, Covid adds to a list of maladies

Syed Badrul Ahsan

22

Building a Covid vaccine strategy for Australia

Danielle Fitzpatrick

23

Australia needs the workers, the Pacific needs the jobs

Grant Wyeth

24

Cambodia: Hard choices

Kimkong Heng

25

Pacific islands: The cost to tomorrow of the crisis today

Catherine Wilson

26

What’s the secret to Southeast Asia’s Covid success stories?

Dominic Meagher

27

Vanuatu: A real test for local emergency response

Linda Kenni , Eranda Wijewickrama

28

Philippines government driving jeepneys off the road

Michael Beltran

29

Southeast Asian democracies in declining health amid Covid-19

Melissa Crouch

30

Cambodia: Caught in the middle

Kimkong Heng

31

Aiding the Pacific during Covid – a stock-take and further steps

Alexandre Dayant , Roland Rajah

32

Going local: Lessons from Covid response in Indonesia

Jess Lees , Jesse McCommon , Puji Pujiono

33

COVIDcast: Dame Meg Taylor on keeping Pacific Islands safe

Jonathan Pryke , Dame Meg Taylor

34

A cry for help as Covid‑19 sweeps Latin America and hunger bites

Antonio Castillo

35

COVIDcast Episode 12: Pandemic, emerging markets, and US dollar

Roland Rajah , Brad Setser

36

Now is the right time to bring Fiji into trans-Pacific bubble talks

Samantha Cook

37

Covid-19: The need to aid Asia to open up

Peter McCawley , Haider A. Khan

38

PNG and Covid-19: The costs of economic stress

Catherine Wilson

39

Constitutional questions over Solomon Islands’ coronavirus crackdown

Joseph D. Foukona

40

COVIDcast Episode 11: Dave Sharma MP on COVID-19 and Pacific relations

Jonathan Pryke , Dave Sharma

41

To act, or not? Al-Shabaab’s response to a Covid-19 crisis in Somalia

Stephanie Carver , Samantha Kruber

42

The health challenge in PNG is far greater than Covid-19 alone

Ishani Kaluthotage

43

Creating a Pacific bubble

Joe Rafalowicz

44

Philippines: Bangsamoro, between conflict and Covid-19

Georgi Engelbrecht

45

Winds of change: Rethinking disaster relief after Cyclone Harold

Meg Keen , David Sanderson

46

The danger of disease in the world’s largest refugee camp

Katrina Lee-Koo , Eleanor Gordon

47

The phony war ends: PNG’s coronavirus challenge takes shape

Shane McLeod

48

Australia needs a comprehensive plan for Covid-19 in the Pacific

Pat Conroy

49

How much is too much? Covid loans for the Pacific

Alexandre Dayant , Roland Rajah

50

A decisive month for Covid-19 in Myanmar – and region beyond

Elliot Brennan

51

Covid-19 and Pacific labour

Murray Ackman , Tautalaaso Taulealo

52

As Africa prepares to fight Covid-19, China steps up

Cornelia Tremann

53

Why South Asia may come out of Covid-19 crisis better than many expect

David Brewster

54

Cry the beloved world

Stephen Howes

55

Coronavirus in conflict: The fight has hardly begun

Eleanor Gordon , Florence Carrot

56

Covid-19: Refugees at risk

Max Walden

57

A global call to arms

Dominic Meagher

58

Timor-Leste: The consequences of Covid-19

Guteriano Neves

59

Double disaster: Emergency preparedness in the era of Covid-19

Jess Lees

60

Australia can’t let foreign aid fall victim to Covid-19

Philip Citowicki

61

Philippines: Covid-19 will devastate the poor

Sheila Coronel
Debate Topic

The world still turns, even on lockdown
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1

Using the Australian Open as a Tokyo test run

André Leslie

2

Covering the Covid shock on The Interpreter in 2020

The Interpreter

3

Pandemic democracy

Benjamin Reilly

4

In Yemen, a deadly concoction of arms sales, conflict and Covid-19

Rebecca Barber

5

Emergency aid amid Covid-19: Falling trust and rising obstacles

Eleanor Gordon , Florence Carrot

6

Covid-19 is not the biggest threat to UN peacekeeping

Jasmine Westendorf

7

The Taliban’s empty promises of peace

Susanne Schmeidl

8

Covid-19 and foreign policy: What’s changed, what hasn’t

Dick Grant

9

For Australia, a testing friendship

Daniel Flitton

10

Can Covid-19 response be a model for climate action?

Natasha Kassam , Noah Yim

11

Malaysia needs a shadow cabinet to check an amateurish government

Chin-Huat Wong

12

Under cover of Covid-19, conflict in Myanmar goes unchecked

James Barklamb

13

Samoa’s constitutional crisis: Undermining rule of law

Fiona Ey

14

Beyond Covid, might China overreach?

Biren Nanda

15

Thailand: Killings of insurgents ends southern separatist ceasefire

Craig Keating

16

Discontinued: America’s Continuous Bomber Presence

Peter Layton

17

Who would Beijing prefer wins in November?

Elliott Zaagman

18

Debating constitutional change in Samoa

Anna Dziedzic

19

Gwadar Port: New Dubai or pie in the sky?

Adnan Aamir

20

Governments, not pandemics, stop access to reproductive health

Sara E Davies , Sophie Harman

21

Winds of change: Rethinking disaster relief after Cyclone Harold

Meg Keen , David Sanderson

22

Troubled waters: China’s sovereign ambition in the shadows of Covid-19

Trinh Le

23

ISIS looks to prosper in a world distracted by the virus

Kareem Salem

24

105 years on, a digital commemoration marks a very different Anzac Day

Federica Caso

25

Scotland: False note to cry freedom

John Lloyd

26

The complex consequences of a plunging oil price

Christian Downie

27

New crackdown will deepen dividing lines in Hong Kong

Ben Bland

28

In the US, a campaign with no trail

Erin Hurley

29

Covid-19 ceasefire unlikely to hasten peace in Thailand’s south

Craig Keating

30

Coronavirus will not dominate elections in South Korea this week

Robert E Kelly

31

US regional leadership: A shot across the bow

William Choong

32

Beyond Covid, Australia’s big stake in India’s military reorganisation

David Brewster

33

A political impasse in Timor-Leste as coronavirus looms

Michael Leach

34

In the shadow of a pandemic, political calamity grips Afghanistan

Chayanika Saxena

35

Coronavirus and the Hong Kong protest movement

JJ Rose

36

Is Singapore feeling safe enough to go to the polls?

Kirsten Han

37

What a difference six weeks and a viral outbreak make for Donald Trump

Erin Hurley

38

Side effects: Covid-19 allows India a chance to lend Myanmar a hand

Teesta Prakash , Phyu Phyu Oo
Debate Topic

Flattening the curve: A pandemic for the information age
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1

Covering the Covid shock on The Interpreter in 2020

The Interpreter

2

How extremist messaging co-opts emergency events

Timothy Graham

3

In Malaysia’s Covid “infodemic”, crime is all too easy

Harris Zainul

4

Under the influence: Peddling conspiracy in a pandemic

Lydia Khalil

5

The cost of conspiracy in muddling public health messages

Clare Murphy

6

China toys with a new propaganda technique: Irony

Weixiang Wang , Oana Burcu

7

India’s Covid-19 tracing app: Power in the right hands?

Aarti Betigeri

8

Covid-19 chaos creates fertile ground for cyberattacks

Gordon Kang

9

Covid-19 and the acceleration of state surveillance

Muhammad Faizal Abdul Rahman

10

Information warfare in the theatre of Covid-19

Damien Spry

11

Back to the future: Keeping Australian air lines of communication open

David Brewster

12

Strength in numbers: The benefit from global efforts to halt the virus

Hervé Lemahieu , Nicholas Bosworth

13

If this is war, that Zoom call is part of the battle

Jason Israel

14

What price privacy? Contact tracing apps to combat Covid

Xueyin Zha

15

The danger meme: Countering visual disinformation in Asia’s politics

Jennifer Yang Hui

16

Doom surfing and fact checkers prosper in Covid-19 infodemic

Alexandra Wake

17

Disinformation and coronavirus

Natasha Kassam

18

Don’t succumb to complacency again: Beating Covid-19 will take a team

Dominic Meagher

19

Fighting Covid-19: Everyone needs to be their own Sherlock Holmes

Dominic Meagher