Founding Contributors

Ava Avila is Strategic Fellow at Verve Research, an independent research collective focused on the relationship between militaries and societies in Southeast Asia. She holds a PhD in Defense and Security from Cranfield University, UK. She is based in Washington, DC.

Jay Benson is the Indo-Pacific Project Manager for Stable Seas, a nonprofit research organization focused on organized political violence and nontraditional security issues in the maritime domain.

David Bruce is a career federal law enforcement officer with assignments in counterterrorism investigations, and tactical instructor positions. As a task force officer for the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) he has spent over five years investigating domestic and international terrorism cases and responding in the aftermath of terrorism attacks.

Alvin Camba is a Sociology PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University and a non-resident fellow at the Stratbase ADR Institute in Manila and Paramadina Institute for Public Policy in Jakarta. He has presented his work at the World Bank, AidData, U.S. Embassy in Manila, and was interviewed by The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, as well as consulted by Southeast Asian politicians and policymakers on China’s growing role in Southeast Asia.

Zak’s mission is to drive a deep, people-first understanding between China and the Western world. He combines in-depth research, theory and on-the-ground experience to provide insights into how a new generation of 417 million millennials will impact our countries, our businesses, and our lives. After publishing his book and listening to friends and colleagues discouraged by careers in journalism and academia, Zak wanted to undo some of the commonly held stereotypes and limiting preconceptions the world has of China.

Michael van Ginkel conducts Indo-Pacific research for the Stable Seas program at One Earth Future (OEF) Foundation, a non-profit organisation that focuses on international conflict and governance. He specializes in conflict resolution and peacekeeping operations.

Renzo Guinto is a Filipino physician and the Chief Planetary Doctor of PH Lab – a “glo-cal think-and-do tank” for advancing the health of both people and the planet. An Obama Foundation Asia-Pacific Leader and Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow, Renzo recently finished his Doctor of Public Health degree at Harvard University and previously worked for the World Bank, World Health Organization, and Philippine Department of Health.

Stephan Haggard is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Distinguished Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy  (GPS) at the University of California, San Diego. He received his PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1983 and taught in the Department of Government at Harvard University from 1983 to 1991 before joining the faculty of GPS where he also serves as Director of the Korea-Pacific Program at GPS.

Murray Hiebert is a senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He earlier served as senior adviser and deputy director of the CSIS Southeast Asia Program. Prior to joining CSIS, Mr. Hiebert was senior director for Southeast Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is the author of two books on Vietnam, Chasing the Tigers (Kodansha, 1996) and Vietnam Notebook (Review Publishing, 1993). His latest book, Under Beijing’s Shadow: Southeast Asia’s China Challenge (Rowman & Littlefield) was released in early 2020.

Dr. Amira Jadoon is an assistant professor and a research associate in the Department of Social Sciences and the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point. She specializes in international security, economic statecraft, and political violence, with a regional focus on South, Southeast, and Central Asia.

Dr. Nakissa Jahanbani is a researcher at the Combating Terrorism Center and an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where she researches various dimensions of Iranian support to militant groups in Iraq, Syria, and the African continent.

Collin Koh is Research Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies which is a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, based in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has research interests on naval affairs in the Indo-Pacific, focusing on Southeast Asia. Collin has published several op-eds, policy and academic journal articles as well as chapters for edited volumes covering his research areas. He has also taught at Singapore Armed Forces professional military education and training courses. Besides research and teaching, Collin also contributes his perspectives to various local and international media outlets and participates in activities with geopolitical risks consultancies.

Hunter Marston commenced his PhD at the Australian National University (ANU) in July 2019. His research is focused on great power competition in Southeast Asia. In particular, he explores how small states in Southeast Asia form hedging strategies to manage their relations with the United States and China, with particular focus on Singapore, Vietnam, and Myanmar. His main research interests include state-society relations and political change in Southeast Asia, U.S. foreign policy, and U.S.-China competition. Prior to joining the ANU, Hunter worked as a Senior Research Assistant at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. 

Satoru Nagao is a non-resident fellow at the Hudson Institute, based in Tokyo Japan. His primary research area is U.S.-Japan- India security cooperation. Dr. Nagao holds numerous other research positions at the Institute for Future Engineering, Research Institute for Oriental Cultures in Gakushuin University, Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, Society of Security and Diplomatic Policy Studies, Security and Strategy Research Institute for Japan, Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka, and at the Indian Military Review. 

Stephen R. Nagy is originally from Calgary, Canada. In December 2017, he was selected as a Distinguished Fellow at Canada’s Asia Pacific Foundation (APF) and an appointed China expert with Canada’s China Research Partnership. APF is a think tank focusing on Asia providing insight and analysis into the region, and how it affects Canadian interests. Concurrently, Stephen is a Senior Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the International Christian University, Tokyo.

Matthew Nanes is an assistant professor of political science at Saint Louis University. His research is on domestic security institutions and citizen-state relations, particularly in places plagued by violent intergroup conflict. Before coming to SLU, he was a postdoc at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego in 2017, and proudly holds a B.A. from Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Sherwin Ona is an associate professor and chairperson of the political science and development studies department of De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines. His current engagements are in the areas of human security, cybersecurity, digital government, and disaster informatics. He is also a fellow of the Philippine Public Safety College-Department of the Interior and Local Government, the La Salle Institute of Governance and the Stratbase-Albert Del Rosario Institute. Dr. Ona is an officer of the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary with the rank of Commander and has previously served with the Philippine Air Force as a reservist officer.

Deo Onda is an Associate Professor at the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He is the founding Principal Investigator of the Microbial Oceanography Laboratory. His research expeditions have taken him to the Arctic Region, the Pacific Ocean, the South China Sea, and the Philippine Sea. He obtained his inter-university PhD in Oceanography from the Université Laval in Quebec, Canada and accomplished a post-doctoral work at the Alfred Wegener Institute-Hemholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research.

Lucio Blanco Pitlo III is a Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, Inc. He has written for CSIS AMTI, China-US Focus, Pacific Forum, South China Morning Post, and The Diplomat, among others.

Harrison Prétat is a research associate with the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). His research interests include maritime disputes, U.S.-China relations, economic engagement in Asia, and challenges to international institutions in the twenty-first century. He holds an M.A. in international relations from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Natalie Sambhi is a nonresident fellow with the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. She is also the founder and executive director of Verve Research, an independent research collective focused on the relationship between militaries and societies. Since 2016, Natalie has also been a research fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, where she publishes on Indonesian foreign and defense policy as well as Southeast Asian affairs. Natalie is a PhD scholar at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian National University, focusing on Indonesian military history.

Dionne Searcey is the former West Africa bureau chief for The New York Times and winner of the 2020 team Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

Jewellord “Jojo” T. Nem Singh, PhD is Senior Lecturer in International Development at the International Institute of Social Studies, part of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is an expert on the global political economy of natural resources and the politics of development. Jojo is the Principal Investigator of a €1.5 million research grant funded by the European Research Council entitled Green Industrial Policy in the Age of Rare Metals: A Trans-regional Comparison of Growth Strategies in Rare Earths Mining (GRIP-ARM). 

Devin Stewart is Senior Fellow at Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs where he founded the Asia Program. He also has served as an adjunct assistant professor in international affairs at Columbia University and New York University.

Jay Tarriela is a commissioned officer of the Philippine Coast Guard with the rank of Commander. He recently earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree as a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) scholar at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) under the GRIPS Global Governance (G-cube) Program in Tokyo, Japan. He is also a Young Leader with Pacific Forum, Honolulu.

Charmaine Willis is an adjunct professor at the University of Maine and currently pursuing a PhD in Political Science at the State University of New York at Albany. Her research specialties include U.S.-Asia relations, East Asian politics (with a focus on Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and the Philippines), civil society development, social movements, protest, terrorism, nationalism, and pedagogy.

Marites Vitug has been a journalist for almost four decades and is one of the Philippines’ most accomplished journalists. A bestselling author, Marites has written eight books on Philippine current affairs. She is the former editor of Newsbreak, a pioneering political magazine. Currently, she is editor-at-large of Rappler. Her latest book, Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Dispute Against China, won the National Book Award for best book in journalism in 2019.

Liuya Zhang is a PhD student at the Political Science department of Ohio State University. She received master’s degrees from Seoul National University and the School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California, San Diego.

Joshua Bernard Espeña is a defense analyst at the Office for Strategic Studies and Strategy Management of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He is currently pursuing the Master of Arts degree in International Studies at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.

Don Mclain Gill is currently pursuing the Master of Arts degree in International Studies at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He has written extensively on regional geopolitics and Indian foreign policy.

Gabriel Honrada is an international relations graduate student at the People’s Friendship University of Russia under the Russian government scholarship. His research focuses on Indo-Pacific military affairs and Russia in the Indo-Pacific.

Beatriz Pedrosa was awarded magna cum laude and inducted as a member of the Jose Rizal Honor Society after earning her bachelor’s degree in European studies from De La Salle University, Manila.