William Evans
William Evans is a journalist currently studying a Bachelor of Journalism / Arts at the University of Queensland, majoring in Peace & Conflict Studies. He’s interested in war, intelligence, and politics. His website is www.willevans.com.au.
Susan Dirgham
Susan Dirgham is a retired ESL teacher. She taught at the British Council in Damascus from September 2003 to January 2006. She is editor of the magazine ‘Beloved Syria - Considering Syrian Perspectives’. She was the national coordinator of ‘Australians for Reconciliation in Syria’.In 2023, Susan co-founded ‘Australians for Reconciliation and Truth Towards Syria’ (Artts), whose main aims were to lobby the government to lift the sanctions on Syria and to establish ties between Australians and Syrians, particularly in the arts.
Michelle Ellner
Michelle Ellner is a Latin America campaign coordinator of CODEPINK. She was born in Venezuela and holds a bachelor’s degree in languages and international affairs from the University La Sorbonne Paris IV, in Paris.
Samar Batool Athar
Samar is a final-year Bachelor of Laws (Hons)/Science (Mathematics) student at UNSW. She is interested in public international law, human rights and advocacy. Samar’s policy concerns relate to Australia’s responsibilities in international criminal justice, specifically the efficacy of our institutional framework for asserting universal jurisdiction. Simultaneously, through her Law Honours thesis, she seeks to empirically assess the role of the UNGA Sixth Committee in the creation and development of international law. Samar is intrigued by the intersection between international politics and law-making, and is dedicated to Australia’s commitment to promoting compliance with international law. Born and raised in Pakistan, she is also interested in exploring third world perspectives on international law. Samar is a Child Protection paralegal at the NSW Crown Solicitor’s Office and an editor of the UNSW Law Journal. She has previously worked as a research assistant at UNSW and volunteered at the Refugee Advice and Casework Service.Samar is attending the United Nations General Assembly 6th Committee as part of the Global Voices Fellowship. Her fellowship is made possible by Global Voices’ partner, the Menzie’s Leadership Foundation.
Paul Haskell Dowland
Paul Haskell Dowland Professor of Cyber Security Practice, Edith Cowan University
Marina Zhang
Marina Zhang is an associate professor at the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI), University of Technology Sydney.
Marina is the author of three books, including “Demystifying China’s Innovation Machine: Chaotic Order,” co-authored with Mark Dodgson and David Gann (Oxford University Press, 2022). Alongside her academic publications in technology and innovation, Marina also writes analytical pieces on the intersection of technology and geopolitics.
Masaya Inoue
Masaya Inoue is Professor of Japanese Political and Diplomatic History in the Faculty of Law at Keio University. He received his PhD in Political Science from Kobe University. He previously worked as an Associate Professor at Kagawa University and Seikei University.
John Tilemann
John Tilemann is a former Australian diplomat specialising in arms control and Asia-Pacific security affairs and an international civil servant with the International Atomic Energy Agency. He was subsequently Research Director and is currently a Senior Associate Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network.
Annee Lawrence
Annee Lawrence is a writer and essayist with a background in literature, women’s health, health promotion, disability rights, social justice and community development. She has worked with Palestinians in Australia and was living and working in Beirut when Israel bombed Gaza in 2008-2009. Two years earlier, in 2006, Israel bombed all the bridges in Lebanon.
Ruwaida Kamal Amer
Ruwaida Kamal Amer is a science teacher from Khan Younis in Gaza who since the outbreak of the present conflict has written widely about its devastating effects on people of all ages. She has powerfully described the experiences of women and children, the terror evoked by constant Israeli bombardments and, as here, the emptiness and despair associated with starvation. Despite the bleakness of the events to which she bears witness her commitment to her people and culture, to the education of children, to overcoming violence and hunger, offer poignant sources of hope in the midst of the darkness.
Jim McDermott
Jim McDermott is an American writer based in New York with years spent in Australia. He spent many years as an editor at America Magazine.
The Australian Security Leaders Climate Group (ASLCG) is a group of former senior defence and security leaders concerned that there is a lack of understanding of how climate disruption will impact on human and regional security. ASLCG aims to reframe the climate narrative, making climate an immediate security priority by assessing risks and building resilience, and acting to secure local and global protection.
The Australian Security Leaders Climate Group
The Australian Security Leaders Climate Group (ASLCG) is a group of former senior defence and security leaders concerned that there is a lack of understanding of how climate disruption will impact on human and regional security. ASLCG aims to reframe the climate narrative, making climate an immediate security priority by assessing risks and building resilience, and acting to secure local and global protection.
James A. Fok
James A. Fok is a veteran financial and strategic adviser to corporations and governments, who served as a senior executive at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing during a decade of rapid internationalisation in China’s capital markets. He is the author of the book Financial Cold War.
Saffron Williams
Saffron Williams is a law student at Flinders University with a strong interest in international law, refugee protection, and human rights. As a mixed-race Australian with a personal connection to Australia’s humanitarian visa system, she is passionate about advocating for more compassionate and effective refugee policies. She currently works in a public hospital emergency department and previously gained experience in legal administration. Through the Global Voices Fellowship, Saffron hopes to contribute to national policy reform while engaging in international dialogue on refugee and asylum issues at the United Nations General Assembly’s Sixth Committee. Saffron will be attending the United Nations General Assembly’s Sixth Committee as part of the Global Voices Policy Fellowship. Saffron’s Fellowship is supported by the Law Foundation of South Australia
James David Spellman
James David Spellman, a graduate of Oxford University, is principal of Strategic Communications LLC, a consulting firm based in Washington, DC.
Kevin Ting-Chen Sun
Kevin Ting-Chen Sun is a senior legislative policy advisor at Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan. He currently works with legislator Ching-hui Chen and previously advised former Foreign Affairs and National Defence Committee Chair Charles I-hsin Chen. He is also a practising attorney and a non-resident research fellow at the Institute for Taiwan-America Studies in Washington, DC.
Anoma Pieris
Anoma Pieris is Professor of Architecture and Associate Dean Research at the Melbourne School of Design. Her recent books include the multi-authored Immigrant Industry: Building Postwar Australia (Berghahn 2024); with Lynne Horiuchi, The Architecture of Confinement: incarceration camps of the Pacific War (Cambridge University Press 2022); and the anthology: Architecture on the Borderline: Boundary Politics and Built Space (Architext 2019). In 2022, she was guest curator for the Museum of Modern Art, New York exhibition The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonisation in South Asia 1947-1985. Anoma’s recent work is on war cemeteries across the Indo Pacific region.
Bart Shteinman
Bart Shteinman is an Executive Member of the Jewish Council of Australia and is an expert in public policy, specialising in climate change and education policy. He grew up attending Jewish schools in Sydney and has worked as an interfaith program coordinator in the NSW education system.
Bart writes on - Homilies & Addresses
Pierre Pahlavi
Dr Pierre Pahlavi is a full professor at the Royal Military College of Canada in the Department of Defence Studies, co-located with the Canadian Forces College, Canada’s Staff and War College. His research focuses on Iran and its asymmetric strategies, public diplomacy, and the use of force in the international system. He has published in various journals in strategic and security studies and has recently published a book in French on the Iranian revolution, Le Marécage des Ayatollahs, prized by the Académie française. He has a PhD in political science from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Mausam Kumar
Mausam Kumar is postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Policy Research on Energy and Environment, School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.
Ann Pavet
Ann Pavett, retired teacher/lecturer of foreign languages. 15 years editor of Neighbours Paper (Ealing,London), a community journal for my locality. Lifelong interest in the peace movement in UK. Moved to Austra;ia in 2012 to be with family..
Zhou Bo
Senior Colonel Zhou Bo (ret) is a senior fellow of the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University and a China Forum expert. He was director of Centre for Security Cooperation of the Office for International Military Cooperation of the Ministry of National Defence of China.
Dr Rajesh Gopalakrishnan Nair
Dr Rajesh Gopalakrishnan Nair is an Innovation Scientist at CSIRO, with extensive experience in public policy and governance. His research interests are centred on innovation policy, with a particular focus on its design, implementation, and institutional dynamics.
Chheng Kimlong
Dr Kimlong is President of the Asian Vision Institute (AVI) in Phnom Penh. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University, a Master in Economics from Kobe University, and a Master in Business Administration from Preston University. He was economic-commercial specialist for the United States Embassy in Phnom Penh from 2008 to 2012. Before that, he was research consultant at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI), research assistant at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and socio-economic specialist for aid-funded rural community-development projects.
Mariam Tohamy
Mariam Tohamy is a teacher and member of Teachers and School Staff for Palestine. She is a Palestine solidarity activist. She is writing in a personal capacity.
Danny Haiphong
Danny Haiphong is an independent journalist and researcher in the United States. He is a contributing editor to the Black Agenda Report, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China and founding member of the No Cold War international campaign.
Miroslav Sandev
Miroslav Sandev is a teacher and member of Teachers and School Staff for Palestine NSW. He has campaigned against anti-Muslim racism and is a Palestine solidarity activist. He is writing in a personal capacity.
Pearls and Irritations guest Mark Kulasingham
Mark Kulasingham grew up in Kuala Lumpur and is a self-confessed Malaysian politics ‘tragic’.
Linda Botterill
Linda Botterill Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Jim Falk
Jim Falk is a Professorial Fellow in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne and Emeritus Professor at the University of Wollongong.
Darrin Durant
Darrin Durant is Associate Professor in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Melbourne.