This briefing paper discusses the need to rebuild disrupted global supply chains, restore strained institutions of global governance, and uphold a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific in the post-COVID-19 order.

The findings of the report can be used to measure the cost to labour productivity and living standards from the COVID-19 de-globalisation shock, as well as the costs and benefits of post-pandemic policy responses aimed at either decreasing or increasing international connectedness.

In a post-Covid-19 world, the India-US relationship is likely to be important, not just in the context of South Asia, but also for the Indo-Pacific region as well as globally. In recent months, Washington and Delhi have signalled that they will strengthen defence co-operation.

The Minsk agreements rest on two irreconcilable interpretations of Ukraine’s sovereignty: is Ukraine sovereign, as Ukrainians insist, or should its sovereignty be limited, as Russia demands? Instead of trying to resolve an unresolvable contradiction, Western policymakers should acknowledge the starkness of the Minsk conundrum.

This report draws out the risks — and likely consequences — for a system already in a state of flux, as the transition to a post-American world accelerates and the coronavirus wreaks havoc on the world economy and international trade.