Read more about our Contributors

Dr Geoff Heriot is a consultant on media and governance, a former corporate and editorial executive of the ABC, with extensive international experience. A review of his book, International Broadcasting and its Contested Role in Australian Statecraft: Middle Power, Smart Power (Anthem Press), appeared in The Reading Room on 30 January 2024.

Dr Bryce Wakefield is the CEO of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. He has lived, worked and researched in the United States, Japan, Europe and New Zealand. He trained as a political scientist with particular expertise in International Relations and the international affairs of East Asia. From 2008 to 2012 Bryce was the associate responsible for Northeast Asian programs at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. In this role, he was responsible for conceiving, designing and organising around 60 events in Washington, including policy briefings in the U.S. Congress, on political issues in Australia, Taiwan, North and South Korea and Japan. He co-organised, with the Wilson Center’s partners, three major annual policy conferences in Tokyo. He has also given talks in Japanese, including for parliamentarians at the National Diet Building From 2012 to 2018, he was a tenured lecturer of area studies and international relations at Leiden University in the Netherlands. At Leiden he taught numerous classes on the foreign policy and domestic politics of Japan, the politics of East Asia, comparative politics, and the relationship between politics and culture. He designed and implemented a successful specialisation on culture and politics for Leiden’s graduate program in International Relations. During his time as a university academic he also delivered training, induction and briefing sessions for Dutch and international diplomats in the Hague and in Japan. Bryce is regularly quoted in the media. His work and views have appeared in print in all major Australian newspapers as well as in, BusinessWeek, Canberra Times, Daily Yomiuri, Der Spiegel, Financial Times, the Japan Times, Sankei Shimbun, de Volkskrant, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Times, and many others. He has also appeared on most Australian television networks, as well as such international broadcasters as BBC News, CSPAN, NHK (Japan) and MSNBC. In February 2015, the Tokyo bureau chief of the New York Times named him as one of 10 “influential and reliable intellectuals” outside Washington that could help foster better ties between Japan and the then Obama Administration. Bryce’s academic publications to date focus on constitutional issues and defence policy, political marketing and national identity in Japan. While at the Wilson Center, he also edited and contributed to several of the centre’s multi-author publications on East Asian politics and foreign policy. Bryce lived in Japan from 1998 to 2004 and earned his master’s degree from Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy. He earned his PhD in political studies from the University of Auckland.

Benjamin Isakhan is Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the Alfred Deakin Institute and Professor of International Politics in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University, Australia. Ben is also Adjunct Senior Research Associate, Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and Consulting Scholar at the Penn Cultural Heritage Centre at the University of Pennsylvania in the US.

Dr Jeffrey McGee is a Professor at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania. His work focusses on international law and governance issues relating to Antarctica, Oceans and Climate Change.

Geoffrey Wiseman is Professor and Endowed Chair in Applied Diplomacy in the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy, DePaul University, Chicago. Wiseman was posted to Australian embassies in Stockholm, Hanoi, and Brussels and was as an advisor to the Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans. He has also worked in the Strategic Planning Unit of the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General and as peace and security program officer at the Ford Foundation. He has taught at the University of Southern California and the Australian National University.

Donald R. Rothwell is Professor of International Law at the ANU School of Law, ANU, and a specialist in polar law.

Dr Ruth Adler is the President of Diplomats for Climate Ltd, the mandate of which calls on Australia to take an international leadership role in meeting the global challenge of climate change. Ruth is a former senior career officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Diplomatic appointments included Ambassador to Ireland (2013-2016) and High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam (2006-2009), with earlier postings as Counsellor/Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy, Mexico City (1998-2000), and Second Secretary at the Australian Embassy, Manila (1991-1994). She is also an Adjunct Researcher with the School of Law at the University of Tasmania. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in international climate law and Latin American history and politics. She is the author of Financing Climate Justice: The Green Climate Fund in a Changing World (forthcoming, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, UK, February 2026). She is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Professor Jacqui True FAIIA FASSA is Professor of International Relations at Monash University and Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEVAW). She received her PhD from York University, Toronto, Canada and has held academic positions at Michigan State University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Auckland. She is a specialist in Gender and International Relations. Her articles on gender mainstreaming and global governance and feminist research methodologies rank among the most highly cited in the field. Her current research is focused on understanding the political economy of post-conflict violence against women and the patterns of systemic sexual and gender-based violence in Asia Pacific conflict-affected countries. Recent publications include Reframing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Security Dialogue with Sara E Davies and Scandalous Economics: The Politics of Gender and Financial Crises (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016) edited with Aida Hozić.

Penny Wong was born in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Her family moved to Australia in 1976, when she was eight years old, and settled in Adelaide. She studied law and arts at the University of Adelaide. After university she worked for the trade union covering furniture industry employees, taking part in campaigns to improve pay and conditions for the union’s members, including poorly-paid female migrants working in upholstery workshops. She worked as an adviser to the NSW Labor Government where she helped develop forests policy, and then as a barrister, before being elected to the Senate for the Australian Labor Party in 2001. Senator Wong has been re-elected four times - in 2007, 2013, 2016 and 2022. With the election of the Rudd Government in 2007, she was appointed Minister for Climate Change and Water. In this position she significantly expanded the Renewable Energy Target, which has driven significant investment in wind and solar power. She also represented Australia in international climate change negotiations and developed the Rudd Government’s emissions trading scheme, a market based mechanism to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in the most economically efficient way. After the federal election of 2010, Senator Wong was appointed as Minister for Finance and Deregulation. As Finance Minister she worked with Treasurer Wayne Swan to deliver three Budgets in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. She also implemented a policy to ensure women are considered for appointments to senior positions in government agencies and corporations. In 2013 Senator Wong was elected Leader of the Government in the Senate and, after the change of government in 2013, became Leader of the Opposition in the Senate – the first woman to hold either of these roles. She served as Shadow Foreign Minister for six years before the election of the Albanese Government in 2022, when she was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs. As Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Wong seeks to rebuild Australia’s reputation as partner of choice - drawing on all elements of our national power – to build a stable and prosperous region, where sovereignty is respected and the rules of the road are upheld. As a proud representative of South Australia in the federal Parliament she has advocated for her State’s interests, including safeguarding the future sustainability of the Murray River and advancing the State’s economy. Senator Wong lives in Adelaide with her wife and their daughters.