Heather Wrathall
Heather Wrathall is Senior Policy Analyst at the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D).
Mitchell Plitnick
Mitchell Plitnick is the president of ReThinking Foreign Policy. He is the co-author, with Marc Lamont Hill, of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. Mitchell’s previous positions include vice president at the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Director of the US Office of B’Tselem, and Co-Director of Jewish Voice for Peace.
You can find him on Twitter @MJPlitnick.
Robert Wolfgramm
Robert Wolfgramm (PhD Sociology and Anthropology, LaTrobe University 1994) is a Fijian-born Australian citizen who lives in Ringwood, east of Melbourne. He completed a an MA in sociology on the Seventh-Day Adventisms American founder, Ellen White and his doctoral dissertation examined the Fijian ethnic self. He taught for 24 years at university level and in 2004 returned to Fiji to be editor of the English-language Fiji Daily Post. The newspaper ceased publication in 2009 as a consequence of the 2006 military coup. Since then he has returned to Australia, continued to write and maintain involvement in various civic projects, including the publication of Prisoner 302 the memoire of Laisenia Qarase (1941-2020), the Fijian Prime Minister from 2000-2006.
Dan Steinbock
Dan Steinbock is an internationally recognised strategist of the multipolar world and the founder of Difference Group. He has served at the India, China and America Institute (USA), Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore).
Samantha Helps
Samantha Helps is a writer and a teacher with a particular concern for youth and education, climate change and intersectionality. She has a degree in education from Denmark where group work and preparing young people for the capacity for togetherness in society are of primary importance.
Guest author Michael Callanan
Michael Callanan is a retired teacher of Logic and History, with an interest in international relations and contemporary history.
Michael Callanan
Michael Callanan is a retired teacher of Logic and History, with an interest in international relations and contemporary history.
Neil Hooley
Dr Neil Hooley is Honorary Fellow, College of Arts and Education, Victoria University Melbourne. He is an experienced secondary school teacher, university educator and researcher with interests in progressive approaches to teaching, learning and assessment and the philosophy of education. He has published widely in academic journals, teacher magazines and newspapers. His latest, co-authored book is Making Sense of the World: Living, Learning and Teaching with Radical Philosophy of Education (Brill, 2024). Dr Hooley has worked with Aboriginal communities in Victoria and is a strong supporter of Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Anastasia Radiewska
Anastasia Radievska is a Ukrainian-born writer and community organiser currently living on Gadigal land. Her poetry has been published in Cordite Poetry Review, Rabbit Poetry Journal, and the Red Room Poetry ‘Writing Water’ anthology. A zine she coproduced with staff and students participating in the University of Sydney 2022 strikes recently appeared in Axon: Creative Explorations journal. Anastasia is a policy researcher and law student. She is interested in the interweaving of personal and collective histories in poetry, and the way these can open up new spaces of freedom.
Matthew Ricketson
I am an academic and journalist. Presently the professor of communication at Deakin University, I was previously inaugural journalism professor at the University of Canberra between 2009 and 2017. I have also run the journalism program at RMIT for 11 years. I have worked on staff at The Australian and Time Australia magazine: my last job in the news media industry was Media and Communications Editor at The Age. I have written three books and edited two.
James Anthony
Jim Anthony earned his PhD at the Australian National University. He worked for then Senator Lionel Murphy as a member of his staff. When the second Whitlam government was elected in 1972 Jim Anthony was appointed Private and Press Secretary to John Wheeldon, Minister for Repatriation and National Compensation. From the mid 1970s Jim has, for the most part worked as an international consultant in Japan, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand and in the Pacific. From the mid 80’s until he retired in 2010 he was the CEO of a non-profit in Hawaii working on global climate change, potable water and ocean acidification. At 88 he is retired and lives in Hawaii.
Sylvie Zhuang
Reporter, China Sylvie joined the Post as a reporter in 2023. She graduated from the University of Chicago and earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois. Previously, she worked as a researcher for multilateral international organisations, including the World Bank and ADB.
Don Scott-Kemmis
Don Scott-Kemmis is a consultant specialising in industry and innovation policy. Previously an Associate Professor at the Australian National University, where he led the Innovation Management and Policy Program, and a research fellow at the University of Sussex and University of Wollongong. He has been a consultant to many national and international organisations, including the FAO, ILO, UNESCO, EU and GIZ. He was a manager in research and innovation policy branches in the public sector in Australia and a Ministerial Adviser. He holds degrees from the University of Sydney and University of Sussex.
F.M. Shakil
F.M. Shakil is a Pakistani writer covering political, environmental, and economic issues, and is a regular contributor at Akhbar Al-Aan in Dubai and Asia Times in Hong Kong. He writes extensively about China-Pakistan strategic relations, particularly Beijing’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Sumitra Vignaendra
Sumitra Vignaendra is a research scientist and is undertaking a PHD in philosophy of science on the topic of Big Data. She has been a social activist for 40 years and has written about race, social class, sexuality, gender, higher education and the flawed criminal justice systems in Australia. Born in Malaysia of Tamil heritage, she immigrated to Australia with her family, aged 8.
Jeff Schubert
Jeff Schubert began his career as a junior manufacturing executive in Adelaide before moving to the Treasury in Canberra, and then Chief Economist of HSBC and a tax policy adviser in Sydney. He later became a business and foreign policy analyst in Russia and China.
My BIO: You can say that, amongst other things, I spent 3 years teaching high-tech business management to Chinese students in Russia!
My book PUTIN and his Lieutenants: compared to Mao, Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Ataturk is now available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B0DBGYB3RR
Kushneel Prakash
Kushneel Prakash is Melbourne Postdoctoral Fellow at the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
Murray Hunter
Murray Hunter is a former entrepreneur, academic and policy advisor, and is now an independent researcher. Murray has a regular column at My Sin Chew and Free Malaysia Today (FMT) in Malaysia, and regular commentator on RT. Murray has published several books and writes in his own Substack at murrayhunter.substack.com.
John Janusz Ebel
John-Janusz Ebel is the son of Holocaust survivors. Soon after coming to Australia from Poland, Ebel chose to be a draft resister and activist against the Vietnam War; he also participated in Aboriginal struggles against continued oppression and genocide of Aboriginal people. Ebel has practised as a radical existentialist psychotherapist.
Guest author Yose Rizal Damuri
Yose Rizal Damuri is Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic and Economic Studies (CSIS) Indonesia.
Xinlu Liang
Reporter, China Xinlu Liang joined the Post as a Graduate Trainee in 2021. Previously, she wrote obituaries for lives lost in California as a Covid-19 reporting intern at the Los Angeles Times and interned at Reuters Shenzhen Newsroom. She graduated with a Master’s in journalism from University of Southern California and a Bachelor’s in English from Sun Yat-sen University.
Alicia Vrajlal
Founder@drawyourbox. Editorial & Partnerships Lead@missingperspectives. Former Senior Culture Editor@refinery29auand Editor@huffpostau
Guest author Quinta Jurecic
Quinta Jurecic is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at_Lawfare_. She previously served as_Lawfare’s_managing editor and as an editorial writer for the Washington Post.
Andrew Dodd
Andrew has been a journalist for over twenty-five years, working in radio, TV, print and on-line. He has worked with ABC radio and television, Radio Netherlands and numerous other publications. He was a media and business writer with The Australian and a broadcaster with ABC Radio National, where he presented many of the network’s programs and founded the Media Report. He was also a media writer for crikey.com.au.
Ray McGovern
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27 years as a CIA analyst included leading the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and conducting the morning briefings of the President’s Daily Brief. In retirement he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Toan Nguyen
Toan Nguyen is Research Fellow at the Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University, and lecturer at the School of Business and Public Policy, The University of Papua New Guinea.
Owen Podger
Owen Podger is an Australian living in Indonesia. Since March 1998 when Soeharto was elected for the final time, he has concentrated on assisting Indonesian reforms , mainly in two areas: (1) policies to improve performance of government in Indonesia’s new democratic and decentralised system, and (2) sustainable urbanisation considering climate change and disasters.
Oliver Yates
Oliver Yates was the inaugural CEO of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (2012-2017) and is now the country head of Gaw Capital.
Ann Villiers
Dr Ann Villiers is a career coach and advocate for increasing the accuracy of skills language. Ann is a Life Member of the Career Development Association Australia (CDAA).
Terry OLeary
Terry OLeary worked at Garden Island Dockyard as Technical Officer Electronics & Communications in 1970s, then Hardware Engineer in IT industry and then Laboratory Manager. Served 6 years Army Reserve in 1970s & 1980s. Completed part time Applied Science Degree followed by Master of Applied Science.
Moved to Canberra in 1990 to work in Defence as an Analyst. Then worked as Senior Professional Officer for DSTO in Navy Office. Attended Joint Services Staff College and completed Master Degree at ADFA UNSW Campus in Management. Worked in Defence Project Managment and left Defence to teach at Canberra Institute of Technology till retirement.
Neryssa Azlan
Neryssa Azlan worked as a digital producer with ABC News Digital since 2018 and is currently a social media producer for ABC’s Q+A and ABC News. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a Masters degree in International Relations. You can follow her on Twitter:@NeryssaAzlan
John Coulter
John Coulter has been active in a range of environmental causes and organisations since the mid-1950s. He was a medical research scientist for over 20 years, became a Democrat Senator for South Australia in 1987. He was leader of the Australian Democrats 1991-93.