Jerome Mellor
Jerome Mellor is a former general practitioner with a lifetime interest in political history.
JJ Rose
As a writer and advisor, James (JJ) Rose has written features, commentary, essays and analysis (on my by-line and for others) for various publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, the International Herald Tribune, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, Al-Jazeera, The Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post and, the South China Morning Post. In 2006, he was advisor to the Special Ambassador to the United Nations World Food Program, The Hon. Mr Abdul-Aziz Arrukban.He has taught Journalism at Griffith University, and is founder of The Kick Project, a registered charity which seeks to bring conflicted or challenged communities together through soccer/football. James has written many books, the most recent a political thriller based on the 2022 Qatar World Cup in Qatar. He has spent time in Israel and the Occupied Territories and has recently returned from the region.
Jonathan Symons
Jon teaches international relations and public policy in the School of International Studies, Macquarie University. He has published widely on international climate politics and policy. His most recent book ‘Ecomodernism: Technology, Politics and Climate Crisis’ (Polity, 2019) explores the argument for increased state investment in low-carbon innovation and deployment of low-carbon technologies. His previous book ‘Queer Wars: The New Global Polarisation over Gay Rights’ (co-authored with Prof. Dennis Altman, Polity, 2016) explored the debate between those arguing that ‘LGBTQI rights are human rights’ and those who believe rights protections should not extend beyond the ’traditional values of mankind’.
Thu Nguyen
Dr Thu Nguyen is an early career health policy and systems researcher with expertise in policy studies, political science, and health governance in the Asia Pacific region. She is currently a Research Fellow based at Discipline of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at James Cook University, Australia.
John Langdale
John Langdale is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University, Australia.
Hao Nan
Hao Nan is a research fellow with the Charhar Institute and a Nuclear Futures fellow (2025-2026) with the Ploughshares Fund & Horizon 2045.
Jennifer Hewett
Jennifer Hewett is the National Affairs columnist. She writes a daily column on politics, business and the economy.
Lana Elliott
Dr. Lana Elliott is a health policy and systems academic with a background in global health and political science. She is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health and Social Work and an Affiliated Investigator with the QUT Centre for Justice.
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange (born 3 July 1971) is an Australian computer programmer, publisher and journalist. He is a spokesman and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, which is a website that posts news leaks. He started the website in 2006. He was born in Townsville, Queensland. He also made a program called Rubberhose (file system) to hide secret information in a specific way that protects against torture.
Assange was the Readers’ Choice for Time Person of the Year in 2010 after getting the most Internet votes.
Stephanie M. Topp
Dr. Stephanie Topp has over 17 years of experience working as a health policy and systems expert specialising in governance and health workforce in low-resource settings. Her skills lie at the intersection of policy analysis, evidence synthesis and health system strengthening, drawing on multi-disciplinary training and extensive service design and implementation including with integrated models of primary-care. Dr. Topp is a Professor of Global Health and Development at James Cook University in Australia, Honorary Principal Research Fellow with the Nossal Institute for Global Health and currently visiting Professor with Zambart in Lusaka, Zambia. She previously served on the Board of Directors for Health Systems Global.
Ali Reza Yunespour
Ali Reza works as an academic at the University of Melbourne. He holds a PhD from UNSW Canberra, where his thesis examined how market economy impacted admission practices in Afghanistan’s higher education. His current research interests are on education in fragile contexts and refugee education in Australia. Ali Reza has extensive experience in community development in conflict-affected areas. Since 2007, through his volunteer work with Indigo Foundation Australia, he has been supporting around 11,000 students across 60 rural schools and mosques in Afghanistan.
Peg LeVine
Peg LeVine, PhD, EdD is a Genocide Scholar, Trauma-Torture Psychologist, Anthropologist, Associate Professor Adjunct, Monash University), sculptor and author of Love and Dread in Cambodia… (2010), Routledge Press.
Aim Sinpeng
Dr Aim Sinpeng is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics in the Discipline of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney.
Katherine Seppings
Katherine Seppings is a writer, poet, editor, photographer, historian, and a human and animal rights activist. She has worked in publishing since the 1970s in Australia, London and New York. Published in journals, anthologies, history blogs and nonfiction books, her article ‘The Removal of Palestine by Google Maps’ appeared in The Big Smoke 2018. Her ‘Poem for Palestine’ will be in Meanjin 84.1 Autumn 2025.
Sherry Tao Kong
Sherry Tao Kong is Associate Research Professor at Institute of Social Science Survey and Institute of Area Studies, Peking University.
Jeremy Salt
Jeremy Salt taught modern Middle East history at the University of Melbourne, Bogazici (Bosporus) university in Istanbul and Bilkent University in Ankara. he is the author of ‘The Unmaking of the Middle East. A history of Western Disorder in Arab Lands (University of California Press, 2008) and ‘The Last Ottoman Wars. The Human Cost 1877-1923’ (University of Utah Press, 2019). He is now an independent researcher.
Sydney Peace Foundation
By awarding Australia’s international prize for peace, we recognise leading global peacemakers, ensure their voices are heard, and support their vital work for a fairer world.
John West
John West is the author of “ _Asian Century … on a Knife-edge_” and currently teaches at Tokyo’s Sophia University. He is also executive director of the Asian Century Institute. These positions follow major stints at the Australian Treasury, the OECD and Asian Development Bank Institute. John is an Australian national, who completed a master’s degree in economics at the University of New South Wales.
Deanna D’Alessandro
Professor Deanna D’Alessandro is a chemist (PhD 2006) and Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. Deanna currently serves as Director of the University’s Net Zero Institute, launched in May 2024, which aims to help government, industry and communities swiftly manufacture, deploy and adopt cost-effective, low emissions technologies at scale. She is passionate about multidisciplinary efforts to address climate change.
Stephen M. Walt
Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International relations at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University.
Sahasranshu Dash
Sahasranshu Dash is a senior economist and research partner at the South Asia Institute of Research and Development in Kathmandu, Nepal. His work focuses on trade strategy, inclusive growth and sustainable development across South Asia.
Mary Garden
Mary Garden is a freelance journalist with a PhD in Journalism (USC). Her writing has appeared in a range of publications, including Australian Financial Review, The Guardian, Meanjin and The Guardian. She has written extensively about “The Palmist and the Catwoman case, where Andrew Fitzherbert became the first person in Australia to be convicted on the basis of DNA evidence alone. She is an award-winning author of four books: The Serpent Rising, Coming Together, Sundowner of the Skies, and My Father’s Suitcase, a memoir on her sister, which has won multiple awards including the National Indie Excellence Award for autobiography.
Philip Brenner
Philip Brenner is emeritus professor of international relations and history at American University, Washington, DC. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University and his B.A. in history from Columbia University. His most recent books are Contemporary Cuba: The Post-Castro Era (Rowman and Littlefield, 2023) and Cuba Libre: A 500-Year Quest for Independence (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018).
Ikemi Ivara
Ikemi Ivara, married and mum to 3 beautiful children, working as a Human Resource Professional within the aviation industry. Passionate about everyone being treated right no matter their situation, I have previously worked within the disability sector and am keen to find ways to stand up for people who can’t do so for themselves. When I am not working, I enjoy singing, dancing and watching soccer. Since moving to Australia, I have come to love Footy and support the Tigers. I continue to aspire to be a better version of myself, upskilling and ensuring I am contributing positively to the human race.
Xiao Qian
H.E. Ambassador Xiao Qian is the current Chinese ambassador to Australia, a post which he assumed in January 2022. Previously he served as Chinese ambassador to Indonesia (2017 - 2021), and before that, Chinese ambassador to Hungary (2012 - 2015).
Lau Siu-kai
Lau Siu-kai is a professor emeritus of sociology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a consultant of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
Frances Cowell
Frances is a student of geopolitics and international law following a long career in capital markets investing in Sydney and London,She attends Master’s degree classes at the University of Paris 2 Sorbonne-Assas, complementing her own research with formal instruction with international law and political-science theory. She also attends lectures at the Jacques Delors Institute and the EU Institute for Security Studies, among other organisations.An occasional contributor to Pearls and Irritations, as well as to L’Institut du Pacifique and L’Association Réalités et Relations Internationales in Paris, from 2016 to 2023 Frances served as a contributor to and director of TheEuropeanNetwork.eu.As part of her career in capital markets investing, including as Head of Investment Risk for a major British insurer and asset manager, Frances spoke at several professional investment conferences, was a regular contributor to well-known professional journals, author of two monographs published by Palgrave-MacMillan and co-author of one published by Wiley. Australian born, she lives in Paris, speaks French more-or-less fluently, basic Spanish, even more basic Italian, a haze of Indonesian and some German. She dances Argentine tango, likes all animals, especially cats, but doesn’t have any of her own.
Virginia Young
Virginia Young works with scientific leaders worldwide to communicate the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity for the mitigation of climate change. She is chairperson of the west Australian environment NGO Gondwanalink. She is a board member of Wilderness Australia and the US-based Partnership for Policy Integrity and a member of several climate specialist groups of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Camille Khellaf
Camille Khellaf Camille is a French journalist based in Tunisia and France. She is passionate about issues of equality, racism and sexism. She is committed to reporting on issues outside of France, her native country, with a perspective free of neo-colonial bias.
Aaron Maté
Aaron Maté is a Journalist with The Grayzone, where I host “Pushback.” Contributor to Real Clear Investigations. Temporary co-host of “Useful Idiots.” In 2019, won the Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media for Russiagate coverage in The Nation.
A J Brown
A J Brown is professor of public policy and law, and program leader, integrity, leadership and public trust in the Centre for Governance & Public Policy, Griffith University. He is also a former senior investigator for the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Associate to Justice Tony Fitzgerald AC QC, ministerial advisor in the first Beattie Government, and current member of the board of Transparency International Australia: http://www.transparency.org.au
Tim Lindsey
Tim Lindsey is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Malcolm Smith Professor of Asian Law and Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at the Melbourne Law School. He completed his PhD thesis in Indonesian studies and teaches and researches Indonesian law. His publications include Indonesia: Law and Society; Law Reform in Developing Countries; The Indonesian Constitution; Corruption in Asia; Islam, Law and the State in Southeast Asia; and Indonesian Law. He is a founding editor of The Australian Journal of Asian Law.