Contemporary Southeast Asia Vol. 43, No. 1 (2021), pp. 1–89 DOI: 10.1355/cs43-1a © 2021 ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute ISSN 0129-797X print / ISSN 1793-284X electronic One War, Many Battles: COVID-19 in Urban Southeast Asia MEREDITH L. WEISS, PAUL D. HUTCHCROFT, ALLEN HICKEN AND EDWARD ASPINALL By any metric, COVID-19 has disrupted Southeast Asia immensely, affecting even those countries that have fared comparatively well. Master narratives of the course of the pandemic across the region have been inescapable: which countries sprang into action and which lost time in denial or dithering; which implemented testing MEREDITH L. WEISS is Professor in the Department of Political Science, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, University at Albany, State University of New York. Postal address: Albany, NY 12210, United States; email:
[email protected]. PAUL D. HUTCHCROFT is Professor in the Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University. Postal address: Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; email:
[email protected]. AllEN HICKEN is Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Michigan. Postal address: 505 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1045, United States; email:
[email protected]. EDWARD ASPINAll is Professor in the Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University. Postal address: Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; email:
[email protected]. 1 01a Roundtable_Edward_3P_9April21.indd 1 9/4/21 6:23 PM 2 Meredith L. Weiss et al. and contact-tracing and which remain short on tests and strategies even now; where the death toll and economic costs have been devastating and where they have not been quite so terrible.1 The latest plot-lines in these unfolding dramas address when and from where vaccines are being secured, how effective authorities are in distributing them to their respective populations, and how they are preparing for and responding to new waves of infection.