While the government has talked about a "bridge" to a time after the pandemic, it hasn't said much about what waits on the other side.

That's partly because it doesn't know what's ahead, except that the economy will be badly damaged and joblessness tragically high.

The government has a crashing economy and a rising number of deaths from COVID-19 to address. It has to communicate daily with Australians about the rapid changes to their lives needed to control the virus.

It's understandable that it doesn't appear to be thinking, or talking, much about what's next.

Still, Australia must consider the challenges it will face in the post-virus world.

While it's clear the economy is under threat, the security and foreign policy environment is harder to predict.

That arguably makes it all the more important to begin planning now. Rather than letting itself get taken over by a shift in international relations it hasn't anticipated, Australia must begin preparing itself for those inevitable changes.

Foreign policy experts have pointed us in the directions events could take the world in months to come. The picture has changed with the course of the virus.

A month ago, when China remained the epicentre of COVID-19, it appeared the rising superpower would emerge from the pandemic a diminished player.

This week, a health crisis is unfolding in New York and other parts of the US, while restrictions have been lifted in Wuhan, where the virus started.

President Donald Trump's performance has been, perhaps predictably, unimpressive. Australia's great ally looks ill-equipped and even incapable of handling the virus.

In the course of a month, it's become feasible the US could emerge from COVID-19 weakened and China even more in the ascendancy.

The speed at which events are unfolding could reverse this equation yet again in another few weeks.

It must be diabolical work for the makers of Australia's foreign policy to think ahead, given these shifting sands.

Here's a possibility that will make some inside the government do a double take: the pandemic could weaken Australia's relationship with both its most powerful ally, the United States, and its largest trading partner, China.

A leading foreign policy expert and executive director of the Lowy Institute, Michael Fullilove, on Wednesday presented this scenario, saying each superpower's "lacklustre" response to the virus would raise questions in Australians' minds about both countries.

There are other possibilities to consider. Australia has found itself in recent years awkwardly lodged in the middle of the two superpowers' growing rivalry, unable to clearly articulate where it stands.

Already there has been a war of words between the US and China over responsibility for COVID-19.

When the virus passes, and especially if Donald Trump is still in power after November, there's a good chance this spat will return.

If US-China relations deteriorate after the pandemic - a real possibility, if not a probability - then Australia must be prepared to navigate an even more difficult path between them.