Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan is an Australian polar geopolitics expert and codirector of MWI’s Project 6633. Her research interests include Arctic and Antarctic geopolitics, energy security, Russian grand strategy, and strategic studies more broadly. Dr. Buchanan is Head of Research for the Royal Australian Navy. She was formerly a lecturer of strategic studies for the Defence and Strategic Studies Course at the Australian War College.

As Pro Vice Chancellor (Business), Griffith University, Caitlin is committed to the delivery of contemporary business education and scholarship that delivers a more sustainable, inclusive and prosperous future for communities across the globe. Having spent the past five years leading the University's research and engagement agenda related to strategic developments in Asia and the Pacific as Director of the Griffith Asia Institute, she brings a global leadership outlook, strengths in building multi-stakeholder partnerships, and a commitment to diversity.

Ms Coles is a senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and has served overseas as Ambassador to the Indian Ocean (Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and the Comores Islands), and most recently, in the Pacific as Consul-General to French Polynesia. In previous postings as First Secretary at the Australian Embassy and Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Vienna, and as Special Advisor and at the APEC Secretariat in Singapore, she specialised in nuclear disarmament issues and regional trade issues, respectively. Ms Coles has also spent four years as Acting Director and Deputy Director of the DFAT Office in Victoria. As a Rhodes Scholar, Ms Coles completed a post-graduate Bachelor of Civil Laws specialising in International Law at the University of Oxford, and also holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Adelaide.

Melissa is currently the Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D). Melissa joined the university of Melbourne in 2019 as Director of Diplomacy at Asialink and then as Research Fellow in the Asia Institute. She previously served as National Executive Director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) for 13 years. Under her leadership, the AIIA was recognised as the Top Think Tank in Southeast and the Pacific and one of the top 50 think tanks worldwide in the University of Pennsylvania’s Global Go To Think Tanks Index for three years running.

Evelyn Goh is the Shedden Professor of Strategic Policy Studies at the Australian National University, where she is also Research Director at the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre. She has published widely on U.S.-China relations and diplomatic history, regional security order in East Asia, Southeast Asian strategies towards great powers, and environmental security. Her latest book (co-authored with Barry Buzan) is Re-thinking Sino-Japanese Alienation: History Problems and Historical Opportunities (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Jane Hardy’s career of more than thirty years in the Australian Government spans senior official and diplomatic posts, including as Australia’s envoy to the US Indo-Pacific Command in Honolulu, Australia’s Ambassador to Spain, Andorra and Equatorial Guinea, and long-term diplomatic positions at Australia’s embassies in Washington DC, Seoul, Republic of Korea, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In Canberra Ms Hardy has served as Assistant Secretary in multiple areas leading on Arms Control and Counter-Proliferation, Strategic Issues and Intelligence, the United States, Western Europe, and as a Director in Nuclear Policy, Korean Peninsula and Regional Security sections. Ms Hardy was seconded to the Australian Government’s Department of IT and Telecommunications as Director of International Policy, and Satellite Policy, and to the National Office for the Information Economy. She has written and presented on strategic, political and economic affairs whilst a Visiting Senior Fellow at the US Studies Centre, Sydney University, the East West Centre at the University of Hawaii, and the Pacific Forum in Honolulu. Prior to government service Ms Hardy published on Australian indigenous art and Australian overseas aid.

Chris Reus-Smit is Professor of International Relations at the University of Queensland and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Before joining UQ, Professor Reus-Smit held Chairs at the European University Institute and the Australian National University (where he was the Head of the Department of International Relations from 2001 to 2010 and Deputy Director of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies from 2006 to 2008). He is co-editor of the Cambridge Studies in International Relations book series, and editor of a new multi-volume series of Oxford Handbooks of International Relations.

Bec is Director Defence, Strategy and National Security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Bec has over 20 years’ experience in policy, operational and corporate roles in the Australian Department of Defence and in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Previous roles include Head of Defence, Space and Infrastructure at Austrade, and Bec was Senior Advisor - Major Powers to the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2019-2020.

Joanne Wallis is Professor of International Security in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Adelaide. Joanne is the author or editor of nine books, including Constitution making during State building (CUP 2014), Pacific Power? Australia’s Strategy in the Pacific Islands (MUP 2017), and Girt by Sea: Reimagining Australia's Security (with Bec Strating, forthcoming). Joanne is Research Program Director of the Security in the Pacific Islands program at the Stretton Institute for Public Policy and editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs.