COVID-19 shows that the health of people and the planet are one and the same. The planet has delivered its strongest warning to date that humanity must change. The UNEP believes it has a duty to help nations build back better after the pandemic to increase resilience to future crises.

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic requires rapid development of scientific knowledge and decisive international leadership. The focus of this paper is the urgency for planning now for after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, and it begins with a discussion of reframing strategic thinking.

The COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown means many countries are looking inwards. But global cooperation will be an important lever out of the economic and social consequences of the virus. This paper suggests that the New Zealand government should embrace the opportunity to reinforce its image as a clean, open and lawful nation.

The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) is a defensive attempt at reasserting ASEAN centrality, and the importance of engaging smaller and middle powers of Asia. But instead of just asserting centrality, this paper argues that ASEAN should also achieve and earn a pivotal role in shaping the emerging 21st-century order in the Indo-Pacific.

This report explores how far the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) – adopted by 181 UN Member States, including Bangladesh, in December 2018 – has informed the response to the Rohingya crisis.