Dr Ian Storey is Senior Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. He specializes in regional security issues with a focus on Southeast Asia’s relations with the major powers and maritime security, especially the South China Sea dispute. Since joining ISEAS in 2007 he has been the chief editor of the academic journal Contemporary Southeast Asia. Prior to ISEAS, Ian held academic positions at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Hawaii, and at Deakin University, Australia. Ian received his PhD from the City University of Hong Kong, his Masters degree from the International University of Japan and his BA (Hons) from the University of Hull, England. He is the author of Putin’s Russia and Southeast Asia: The Kremlin’s Pivot to Asia and the Impact of the Russia-Ukraine War (2025) and Southeast Asia and the Rise of China: The Search for Security (2011).

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Bill Hayton is an Associate Fellow with the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House and the editor of the academic journal ‘Asian Affairs’. He is the author of four books on Asia including The South China Sea: the struggle for power in Asia and The Invention of China. Bill worked for the BBC for 22 years until January 2021. He was the BBC’s reporter in Vietnam in 2006-7 and was seconded to the public broadcaster in Myanmar in 2013-14. In 2019 he received his PhD from the University of Cambridge for work on the history and development of the South China Sea disputes. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

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Elina Noor is a senior fellow in the Asia Program at Carnegie where she focuses on developments in Southeast Asia, particularly the impact and implications of technology in reshaping power dynamics, governance, and nation-building in the region.

Previously, Elina was director of political-security affairs and deputy director of the Washington, D.C. office at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Prior to that, Elina was an associate professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. She spent most of her career at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia, where she last held the position of director, foreign policy and security studies. Elina was also formerly with the Brookings Institution’s Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.

Between 2017 and 2019, Elina was part of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. From 2021 to 2023, she served on the International Committee of the Red Cross Global Advisory Board on digital threats during conflict. She currently serves on the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.

Elina read law at Oxford University. She obtained an LL.M (Public International Law) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, graduating with distinction at the top of her class. A recipient of the Perdana (Malaysian Prime Minister’s) Fellowship, she also holds an MA in security studies from Georgetown University, where she was a Women in International Security Scholar.

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Dr. Wondeuk Cho is currently an assistant professor of Department of Indo-Pacific Studies at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, Korea National Diplomac Academy. He is also a visiting professor at Yonsei University. His main research topics consist of international relations of the Indo-Pacific region-esp. Southeast Asia and South Asia including India. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a M.A. degree from Texas A&M University. He has been teaching at GSIS and Underwood International College, Yonsei University since 2019 and was a lecturer at Carroll University in Wisconsin.

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Dr Tricia Yeoh is Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Nottingham Malaysia’s School of Politics and International Relations. She is also Senior Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Senior Visiting Fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Senior Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University Malaysia. She was recently a 2024/25 Atlantic Council Millennium Leadership Fellow. She is former CEO of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) Malaysia, where she served up to September 2024.
She was a Southeast Research Group (SEAREG) Fellow 2020/21 and has won several awards including the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award for Monash University Malaysia, the Postgraduate Award Prize 2020/21 from the University of Nottingham and the Malaysia Australia Alumni Council Female Alumnus of the Year Award 2023. She writes and speaks widely on federalism, comparative politics and public policy in Malaysia. She has previously worked in the Chief Minister’s Office of the Selangor State Government. Dr Yeoh holds a PhD in Political Science from the School of Politics, History and International Relations at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. Her writings can be found at www.triciayeoh.com

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H.E. David Hartman is Ambassador of Canada to the Philippines

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Patrick Zoll reports on Indo-Pacific geopolitics, focusing on the strategic rivalry between China and the United States, from his base in Taipei. He is a correspondent for Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), Switzerland’s leading daily newspaper for international affairs.

Previously, Patrick served as NZZ’s correspondent in Japan, covering Northeast Asia, and in Australia, reporting on Australasia, including the South Pacific. He also worked as an editor at the paper’s headquarters in Zurich, overseeing coverage of Asian affairs.

Patrick studied international relations in Geneva and Moscow. His career spans diverse roles across journalism, public relations, and international organizations. Before joining NZZ, he worked for various media outlets, spent seven years as a freelance PR copywriter for companies of all sizes, and served two years with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Jerusalem.

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Kazuki BABA is

an Assistant Professor and Research Fellow of Center for Maritime Safety and Security Studies at Japan Coast Guard Academy.

He is also a visiting researcher at Ritsumeikan University and Editorial Advisory Board for International Journal of Korean Unification Studies by Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU).

His main research discipline is International Relations, fields of interest are Japan-Korea relations, Japan-US-South Korea trilateral relations and Japan-US alliance on Indo-Pacific.

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Dr. Aaron Jed Rabena is Professorial Lecturer at the Asian Center in the University of the Philippines Diliman. His areas of interests include Strategic Studies, Greater East Asian Geopolitics and Multilateral Politics, Political Risk, Maritime Security, and Chinese Politics and Foreign Policy.

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