Yan Islam
Yan Islam is an Adjunct Professor at the Griffith Asia Institute and former Branch Chief, International Labour Office, Geneva. He writes in a strictly personal capacity.
Sasha Klumov Attard
Sasha is a political economist currently working as a researcher. His areas of expertise include democratic governance, state-society relations, and social cohesion. His research focuses on the intersection of public policy, private power, and contemporary political change.
Lam Ka Sing
Lam Ka Sing joined SCMP as a journalist at the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and has won numerous awards. These include Business Reporter of the Year and Best Property Market News Reporting at the 7th Business Journalism Awards of The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Excellence in Business Reporting at The Sopa 2020 Awards for Editorial Excellence as well as Merit Award at The 21st Consumer Rights Reporting Awards from the Consumer Council. He has a Master of Science degree in real estate from the University of Hong Kong and a bachelor’s degree in international journalism from Hong Kong Baptist University. He is a student member in the general practice division of The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors.
Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh is an American investigative journalist and political writer. He gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.
Rebecca Sta Maria
Rebecca Sta Maria is former Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat, Singapore.
Virginia Lee
Virginia Lee is a solicitor, a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area lawyer, and a China-appointed attesting officer.
Margaret Cassar
Margaret Cassar Executive Member of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association Convenor of Adelaide BDS movement
James Ricketson
Filmmaker/Journalist with 30 years of experience in Cambodia, including 15 months in a maximum security prison on espionage charges.
Jane Cai
Bureau Chief, Beijing Jane Cai, CFA, is the Beijing Bureau Chief of the Post. She has been covering China’s economic, financial, business and political news since the early 2000s.
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.