Dr. Deepak Nair is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of International Relations, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs. His research advances a political sociology of diplomacy and international politics, drawing on immersive fieldwork among diplomats and international bureaucrats in Southeast Asia. He is currently working on a monograph titled 'Doing Nothing: The Cultural Production of Inaction in ASEAN.' The book is an ethnography of ASEAN’s diplomacy, and examines how seemingly bogus and empty activity can have powerful political effects.