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Through her research, presentations and publications, Dr Natalie Sambhi is committed to helping people gain a more nuanced understanding of Indonesian civil-military relations, Indonesian defence policy and Southeast Asian security.

Natalie is Founder and Executive Director of Verve Research, an independent think tank focussed on the relationship between militaries and societies in Southeast Asia. She is also a Senior Policy Fellow at Asia Society Australia and a Non-resident Fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program.

Natalie works as a lecturer at the Australian War College for Deakin University, convening modules for the Australian Command and Staff College and other programs. She has a PhD from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian National University on the Indonesian military’s history. Follow her on Twitter @securityscholar.

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Dr Hugh Tuckfield is Founder and Executive Director of the Indo-Pacific Studies Center (IPSC), an Australia-based think tank focused on strategy, security, and governance across the Indo-Pacific. A political theorist by training, he leads IPSC programs on AUKUS and the QUAD, regional risk, and executive education, including the State of the Indo-Pacific initiative and the Emerging Leaders Forum. His research and commentary span cross-Strait dynamics, maritime security, critical technologies, and democratic governance. He has held fellowships at Oxford University and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Amity Centre for BRICS Studies (India). He has published widely on Indo-Pacific affairs.

Hugh holds a PhD in Government and International Relations, a Master’s in Human Rights and Democratization, an LLB (Law), and a Bachelor of Economics. At the Manila Dialogue, he contributes a region-first perspective on strategic competition, economic statecraft, and practical pathways to a secure, free, and prosperous Indo-Pacific.

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Dr Peter K. Lee is a Non-Resident Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He is currently a research fellow in the Center for Regional Studies at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank based in Seoul, Korea. His recent publications cover US foreign and defence policy, Australia-Korea relations, AUKUS, and Korean security.

Previously, Dr Lee was a research fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre and also a Korea Foundation research fellow at the University of Melbourne. Dr Lee received his PhD in strategic studies from the Australian National University, and his Master of International Relations and a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in political science from the University of Melbourne.

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Bec Strating PhD FAIIA is the Director of the La Trobe Centre for Global Security and a Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University, Melbourne. She has extensive experience working in the academia-policy-public engagement nexus in the fields of international diplomacy and security. Her research focuses primarily on Asian regional security, maritime disputes, and Australian foreign and defence policy. She is the author of ‘Girt by Sea: reimagining Australia’s Security’ with Professor Joanne Wallis (La Trobe University Press/Black Inc, 2024), which was launched by Foreign Minister Penny Wong in April 2024. She is the co-editor of ‘Blue Security in the Indo-Pacific’ (Routledge, 2024) and ‘The Politics of Global Ocean Regions’ (Palgrave, 2025). Bec currently leads the DFAT-funded “Blue Security” network focused on maritime security issues in the Indo-Pacific. She is a non-resident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research, an affiliated researcher at Georgetown University, a member of the East West Centre Council on Indo-Pacific Relations, an expert affiliate at the Australian National University’s National Security College, and President of the Women in International Security-Australia’s steering committee. She serves on the editorial boards of Contemporary Security Policy, Australian Journal of International Affairs and Journal of Maritime and Territorial Studies.

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