Derek Wilding
Co-Director, Centre for Media Transition, University of Technology Sydney I have a law degree from UQ and a PhD in media studies from QUT. Previous positions include Executive Director of the Australian Press Council, Manager at the Australian Communications and Media Authority, and Director of the Communications Law Centre at UNSW.
Bill Hayton
Bill Hayton is an Associate Fellow in the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, United Kingdom. This is an adapted excerpt of ISEAS Perspective 2025/79 published on October 23. The paper and its references can be accessed at this link.
Hani Qarmoot
Hani Qarmoot is a journalist and storyteller from Gaza, focusing on resilience, dignity, and life under siege.
Editorial Board, ANU Canberra
The EAF Editorial Board is located in the Crawford School of Public Policy, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University.
REN Ke
Ren Ke is a senior journalist with Xinhua News Agency. Before returning to China in September 2023, Ren worked in Europe for more than six years. From 2017 to 2021, he was a Xinhua correspondent in Berlin, focusing on Germany’s domestic politics and foreign policies. From 2021 to 2023, Ren was deputy editor-in-chief of Xinhua’s Europe Regional Bureau in Brussels and correspondent of EU institutions. In February 2022, Ren was one of the first Chinese correspondents who went to Ukraine to report the Russia-Ukraine War.
Zohran Mamdani
Zorhan K. Mamdani is a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly and on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, was elected mayor of New York City.
Sandi Logan
Sandi Logan was a journalist from 1974-1984 (Fairfax, Toronto Sun, ABC-TV & Radio); a DFAT diplomat from 1984-2002, serving in Port Moresby (1988-90), Bonn (1993-96) and Washington DC (1998-2002); a media adviser to federal Liberal and Labor ministers; a communications executive and spokesman for the AFP and the Department of Immigration; and most recently an author of the non-fiction book BETRAYED (Hachette, ISBN9780733648601). Originally from Canada, he has also played ice hockey for more than 60 years.
Philip Lawn
Philip Lawn is a retired evidence-based economist who has published journal articles and books on such broad topics as sustainable development, climate change, and welfare indicators. Philip spent most of his academic career at Flinders University, Adelaide. Despite retirement, Philip is working on a set of alternative sustainable development indicators and intends to write economics textbooks which better reflect concrete reality than current mainstream offerings.
Tom Sinkovits
Tom Sinkovits OAM is a former Australian diplomat, trade official, refugee and Chief of Mission for the UN’s International Organisation for Migration.
Tamara Kayali Browne
Dr Tamara Kayali Browne is Senior Lecturer in Health Ethics at Deakin University, a Palestinian activist with Canberra Palestine and Climate Justice, and a Gaza Representative and member of the ACT Activist Leadership Committee with Amnesty International.
Tamara’s Red Pill https://tamarakayalibrowne.substack.com/
Carolyn Blacklock
Carolyn Blacklock is the former managing director of PNG Power Ltd and former representative for the World Bank in PNG
Kate MacNeill
Kate MacNeill
Head of Art History, and Arts and Cultural Management at University of Melbourne, University of Melbourne.
Pearls and Irritations guest Josh Pallas
Josh Pallas is President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties. He is completing a PhD in criminal law at the University of Sydney and previously practiced criminal and administrative law in government and private practice.
Chow Chung-yan
Chow Chung-yan began his journalistic career at the South China Morning Post and rose to become Executive Editor in 2015, following stints at the City, China and Business desks. As the SCMP’s second-in-command, he is in charge of the China and US bureaus as well as the political economy, culture, print and digital teams. He has been running the SCMP’s day-to-day operations since 2011. He led the newsroom’s organisational restructuring, streamlined its production workflows and set up dedicated teams for both the print and digital products to facilitate the newspaper’s digital transformation. He also assembled an award-winning infographics desk and spearheaded the redesign of the newspaper.
Mohamed Ainullah
Mohamed Ainullah is an AMUST subeditor responsible for the Mediascan section of AMUST
Marwan Bishara
Marwan Bishara is an author who writes extensively on global politics and is widely regarded as a leading authority on US foreign policy, the Middle East and international strategic affairs. He was previously a professor of International Relations at the American University of Paris.
Alexander Titov
Alexander Titov Lecturer in Modern European History, Queen’s University Belfast
Alexander Titov does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Sonia Randhawa
Sonia is a former journalist, who has worked in Australia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom and once won an award for a piece on how to become a spy. She co-founded the Centre for Independent Journalism in Malaysia and currently works for the Sortition Foundation in Melbourne. With a PhD in feminist media studies from the University of Melbourne, she has published on women and media, freedom of expression, freedom of information and access to environmental information, mainly in a Malaysian context. In her current role, she is an active member of the international Democracy Research and Development network, and has been involved in recruiting for democratic lotteries across the UK, Europe and Australia.
Tim Thornton
Dr Tim Thornton, is Director of the School of Political Economy, Melbourne. Senior Research Fellow at the Economics in Context Initiative at Boston University and the Senior Research Fellow at the Global Development Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. Tim is also a member of the Advisory Council at the Centre for Economy Studies in the the Netherlands and a member of the Editorial Collective for the Journal of Australian Political Economy.
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson Journalist covering technology, transport, AI and renewable energy at AAP
Li Qing
Li Qing is a professor and executive president of the Guangdong Institute for International Strategies. The authors contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.
Mahathir bin Mohamad
Mahathir bin Mohamad (born July 10, 1925, Alor Setar, Kedah [Malaysia]) is a Malaysian politician who served as prime minister of Malaysia (1981–2003; 2018–20), overseeing the country’s transition to an industrialised nation.
Erwin Chlanda
Erwin Chlanda Journalist. TV photojournalist and producer Minyerri, Northern Territory, Australia
Elis Gjevori
Elis Gjevori is a journalist based in Istanbul. He focuses on the Balkans, Turkey and the Middle East.
Kos Samaras
Kos Samaras is a director at RedBridge Group, a research and strategy firm specialising in public opinion, social trends, and behavioural insights. He works across industry, government, and media to help organisations understand community attitudes and navigate complex social and political environments.
Laura Tingle
Laura Tingle is the chief political correspondent for nightly current affairs program 7.30. One of Australia’s best journalists and top political analysts, she’s spent most of her 35-year career in journalism reporting on Australian federal politics, and the country’s major policy debates. A journalist, author and essayist, she was formerly the political editor of The Australian Financial Review.
Christopher Tang
Christopher Tang is a distinguished professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management
Peter Briggs
Peter Briggs retired from the RAN in 2001 after a 40-year career, specialising in submarines. This included two submarine commands, command of the RAN Submarine Squadron, director of Submarine Policy and Warfare and Head of Submarine Capability Team, established to rectify Collins introduction into service issues. He was the president of the Submarine Institute of Australia from 2006-09 and is a frequent contributor to public debate on Australian submarine matters.
Justine Bell-James
Justine Bell-James Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland
Hannah Dickinson
Hannah Dickinson is the principal solicitor at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne.
Edward Hurcombe
Edward Hurcombe is a Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow in the School of Media and Communication, RMIT. Edward researches how news and journalistic practice are transforming in relation to the technologies, economies, and user cultures of social media platforms. He is interested in both the challenges and possibilities emerging from these transformations: from tackling malicious actors on platforms, to locating new kinds of socially-positive digital journalism.
KJ Noh
K.J. Noh is a political analyst, educator and journalist focusing on the geopolitics and political economy of the Asia-Pacific. He has written for Dissident Voice, Black Agenda Report, Asia Times, Counterpunch, LA Progressive, MR Online, and People’s Daily. He also does frequent commentary and analysis on various news programs, including The Critical Hour, The Backstory, By Any Means Necessary and Breakthrough News. He recently co-authored a study on the military transmission of infectious diseases and its implications for Covid transmission.
Alan S Alexandroff
Alan Alexandroff is Director of the Global Summitry Project and Co-Chair, along with Brookings’ Colin Bradford, of the CWD, originally the China-West Dialogue and now the Changing World Dialogue. His weekly Substack posts can be found at Alan’s Newsletter.
Anthea Hancocks
Anthea is the CEO of the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute. The Institute is an independent, research organisation dedicated to social cohesion. They publish the Mapping Social Cohesion Report which is acknowledged as the foremost survey into social cohesion anywhere in the world. Anthea is also a PhD candidate with Monash University.
Adrian Lipscomb
Adrian Lipscomb OAM is a retired lawyer, travel-writer, academic, and political observer. During the 1980s he worked in policy areas with the Australian Department of Defence in Canberra and with the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO, later renamed as the Defence Intelligence Organisation [DIO]). In the mid-1990s he volunteered in the Solomon Islands, and was the co-ordinating author of the 1998 edition of the Lonely Planet Guide to PNG
Maria O'Sullivan
Associate Professor of Law, Member of Deakin Cyber and the Centre for Law as Protection, Deakin University, Deakin University
Grace McQuilten
Grace McQuilten is a published art historian, curator and artist with expertise in art and health, public art, social practice, social enterprise and community development. Grace’s research challenges and transforms conventional understandings of the relationship between margin and centre in relation to the cultural economy, contemporary art practice and art history. She has pioneered work on the field of art-based social enterprise in Australia, with particular expertise in migrant and refugee settlement.
