Our people

Aaron Bateman is an assistant professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University. He is the author of Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative (MIT Press). He received his PhD in history of science and technology from Johns Hopkins University.

Researching attraction-based influence (intended and unintended), Naren is lead editor of the Anthem Handbook of Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in the Age of AI (2026) and two earlier Routledge handbooks of soft power. A Member of the Order of Australia, he founded the Department of International Communication, the Journal of International Communication, and the Soft Power Research and Analysis Centre, and served as Secretary-General of the International Association for Media and Communication Research.

Alistair Gee is the Co-Founder of the Centre for Armed Violence Reduction. Over the past 20 years he has run and Chaired a range of violence prevention organisations, including: 

• being CEO of Act for Peace
• managing the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Prior to that, he worked on refugee rights and was a lawyer.

Dr Bates Gill has a 35-year global career as an institution-builder, policy advisor, consultant, board director and scholar, with a focus on China and Indo-Pacific affairs. His work includes more than 200 publications and travel to more than 60 countries. Learn more.

Dr Mark Golsby CPP is a security leader, advisor, policy developer, educator and communicator.  A former Director in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as well as a senior manager in Austrade and Risk Manager on AusAID programmes, he is a risk management professional leading the development, implementation and management of security governance, assurance, incident and crisis management, and infrastructure and operations security programmes.

Best known for his writings on public opinion and on voting behaviour, Murray’s work focuses on Australian politics, including political campaigns, political parties, and the media. His next book (with Tim Rowse), on the 2023 referendum to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the Constitution, will appear in 2026.

Dr Jane Hanley investigates the influence of transnational mobility in popular genres in the Spanish-speaking world, with a focus on travel and tourism and on the works of Guillermo del Toro. Jane also researches curriculum design and student learning, and is currently Academic Director at CIEE Sydney.

Geoffrey Hawker is a former head of Politics and International Relations who studies democratisation from an institutional perspective. A sometime president of the national associations of both Political Science and of African Studies, he is currently a peer reviewer for the ARC and editor of the Journal of Secular Democracy.

John Langdale’s research interests are in money laundering and transnational crime in the Asia-Pacific region. He has examined the role of Chinese money laundering in North America, with a particular focus on the Vancouver Model. He has also published on money laundering in Australian casinos, focusing on the role of Chinese criminal groups in the VIP market. He is working currently on transnational crime and money laundering in Southeast Asia.

Trish Lavery is an academic and policy expert working at the intersection of strategic foresight, behavioural economics and communications. As Project Director in the central strategy team at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, she leads efforts to embed futures thinking across the Australian Public Service. 

Internationally, she is: 

• Senior Fellow of Futures and Human Behaviour at London’s Sympodium Institute
• a Strategic Foresight Consultant for the Centre for Future Generations in Brussels. 

A former OECD Strategic Foresight Counsellor, she contributes to research on AI futures, misinformation, geoengineering and neurotechnology, advocating for behavioural insights in emerging technology discussions.

Stephanie Lawson’s work spans comparative and international politics dealing with issues including nationalism and ethnic politics, and democracy and human rights in cross-cultural settings. She is a past president of the Australian Political Studies Association and the Pacific Islands Political Studies Association, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

Stephen McCombie PhD CISSP ISSMP CFE

Stephen's current research interests are in maritime cyber threats, cyber influence, cybercrime, digital forensics, cyber threat intelligence and cyber conflict. He has over 25 years’ experience in cybersecurity as a practitioner and researcher. 

He has also held management roles in cybersecurity with: 

• IBM
• National Australia Bank
• RSA Security/Secureworks (Dell).

Elenie Poulos was awarded her PhD in Politics in 2021. She researches the intersection of religion and politics. Her work is interdisciplinary, drawing from politics, critical studies in religion, sociology of religion and discourse studies. 

She is a past Visiting Fellow at Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford.

James Ramsay is a Professor of Security Studies and an award-winning scholar and educator with 25 years of experience in security, intelligence, public health, safety, and resilience education. 

A former department head at Macquarie University and founding chair at the University of New Hampshire, he is a leading authority in security and intelligence curriculum development and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

John Severn’s research focuses on theatre and internationalisation. Within this area he works on theatre, opera, the musical and adaptation, with a particular interest in how these have been used to create and maintain various forms of local, national and international community, both in the past and today.

Mike Smith served as Australian Ambassador in Egypt, Algeria, Geneva and for Counter-Terrorism. He worked at the UN in New York from 2007 to 2013 as senior adviser on counter-terrorism to the UN Security Council. Other positions held include: 

• Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights
• Chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry into Eritrea.