Unassuming and quiet is sometimes the best way to govern in a pandemic. Southeast Asia’s most overlooked nation, Brunei, has proven its bureaucratic brass and state system functionality, and its success gives credence to its effective leadership and recent reforms in the sultanate.

Southeast Asian nations have had varied responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Singapore shows great competence in handling the outbreak, while the majority of Southeast Asian nations struggle with the lack of technical capacity, unprepared healthcare systems, and low public awareness.

As Australia hopefully emerges from the worst of the 2019/2020 bushfires, it is quickly becoming apparent that the tourism industry has been hit particularly hard. This has rattled Australia's international image, with local industries being gravely affected.

This week and next week we are publishing the best Australian Outlook pieces of 2020, as selected by our committee of commissioning editors. As new national security laws prompt states to reevaluate the future direction of their relationships with Hong Kong, Australia has set a precedent by suspending its extradition agreement. The move represents a sound appreciation of the international legal framework.

The International Court of Justice rendered a judgment last week that may have slipped under the radar at this heady time of year. This judgement has fascinating implications for the practice of international diplomacy.

Although overseas arrivals precipitated Italy’s second lockdown, migrants arriving from Africa and the Middle East are not super spreaders of COVID-19. It is unfortunate, yet not surprising, that populist leaders have capitalised on the pandemic to further anti-immigration sentiment in an already divided country.

The misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that in the area of social media, there is a need for a quality review. This raises the question of whether there is there a need to quiet public participation in politics.

Bangladesh has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to relocate Rohingya refugees from Cox's Bazaar to Bhasan Char Island in the Bay of Bengal.  It remains to be seen whether this relocation will be forced or voluntary.

Kathmandu's sovereignty concerns are genuine and deserve better treatment from India. In reality, like Kathmandu does not want to compromise its sovereignty for India's national security, New Delhi would be unwilling to compromise its national security for Nepal's strategic autonomy.

UN peacekeeping dangerously overlooks the reality that peace operations have both unintended and negative consequences. Any intervention into the politics and culture of a community is bound to create tensions between local practices and foreign peacebuilding practices.