Read more about our Contributors

Iryna Taliian is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of International Relations, Ekonomická univerzita v Bratislave (EUBA), Slovakia. Her research focuses on the politics of Australian free trade and its broader foreign economic policy.

Hangga Fathana is a faculty member in International Relations at Universitas Islam Indonesia and a Senior Research Fellow (Indonesia–Australia Relations) at the Perth USAsia Centre.

Darren Coughlan FIML is Discipline Lead Lecturer in Sport Management at the International College of Management Sydney and a Doctorate of Business Administration candidate at the European Institute of Management and Technology. His research focuses on sport governance, regulatory frameworks, and the commercial and diplomatic architecture of international sport. He is the author of a forthcoming textbook on athlete management and writes at otoli.substack.com.

Dr Rana Dadpour is a Research Fellow in social and economic risks at The Cairns Institute, James Cook University. She is the founding director of AUSIRAN, a diaspora advocacy group for Australian Iranians.

Muhammad Rizwan is a PhD Scholar in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University, Melbourne.

Dr Reuben Steff is Assistant Professor at Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic. He teaches courses on Geopolitics, International Relations and International Security. His research spans the the dynamics of great-power competition between the United States and China, implications of artificial intelligence for the global balance of power, the interaction between nuclear deterrence theory and ballistic missile defence within the security dilemma, and New Zealand, Australia and United States foreign policy. He is the author of five books, including New Zealand’s Geopolitics and the US-China Competition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), Emerging Technologies and International Security: Machines, the State and War (Routledge 2020) and US Foreign Policy in the Age of Trump: Drivers, Strategy and Tactics (Routledge, 2020). His latest journal articles are: "The Strategic Case for New Zealand to Join AUKUS Pillar 2", Australian Journal of International Affairs, (2025) and "'Our region is now a Strategic Theatre”: New Zealand’s Balancing Response to China", The Pacific Review (2024).

Joseph Zeller is a defence and national security professional with experience across the Navy, policing and government. His research spans strategy, energy economics, and the constraints shaping industrial capacity and long-term strategic resilience.

Alfin Febrian Basundoro is a junior lecturer in the Department of International Relations at Universitas Airlangga.

Callum Trainor is studying for a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne. He is a graduate of Stanford University and has undertaken further studies at the Institut Pasteur and the Sorbonne. His interests lie in global health and international affairs, with a particular focus on Australian-Indonesian relations. He is also a recipient of the 2025 AIIA Euan Crone Asian Awareness Scholarship, which supported his research in Indonesia. You can find more about the scholarship program, including how to apply, here.