A Hypothetical Crisis in the South China Sea

Ali Moore has more than 25 years experience as a journalist and broadcaster, working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's Nine Network, and for the BBC's global news network, based in Singapore. She has covered major news and current affairs events across the region, reporting from Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China.

She is now a freelance broadcaster and journalist and a Vice Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne, working with Asialink.

In her more than two decades as a broadcaster Ali has interviewed key decision makers from a range of companies, industries and political theatres. Her previous roles include ABC China Correspondent, host of Australia's premier late night TV current affairs program Lateline, and anchor of some of the country's key business news programs (Business Sunday, Lateline Business). 

Gareth Evans is a writer, academic, lawyer and former cabinet minister.

He was a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating Governments for thirteen years, as Attorney General, Minister for Resources & Energy, Transport & Communications, and Foreign Affairs; Leader of the Government in the Senate for four years; and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representative for three years. After 21 years in the Australian Parliament, he led the Brussels-based International Crisis Group from 2000-2009.

Gareth Evans has been Chancellor and Honorary Professorial Fellow of the Australian National University since 2010, and has written or edited twelve books on international relations, government, and legal and constitutional reform.

Professor Admiral Chris Barrie is Honorary Professor at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. He retired in 2002 after 42 years in the Royal Australian Navy, ending in four years of service as the Chief of the Defence Force(CDF). Since then he has worked on strategic leadership issues as consultant, teacher and mentor at Oxford University, the National Defense University in Washington DC, and at Australian National University. 

Dr Sow Keat Tok joined the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne in 2012. He obtained his PhD in Politics and International Studies in the UK, and was previously associated with Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation (CSGR) at the University of Warwick (2011-2012), the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham, and the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore.

He has researched and published on China’s sovereignty affairs and is concurrently working on nationalism and the state’s memory construction projects in China and Northeast Asia.

Chen Hong is Chair of Department of English Language and Literature, and Director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University in Shanghai. He is also Executive Vice President of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies, Editor-in-Chief of the Website of Australian Studies in China, and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Studies of Australian Culture, and Journal of Australian Studies in China. His research interests include China-Australia relations, Australian politics, Australian culture and Australian literature. 

Charles Edel is a senior fellow and visiting scholar at the United States Studies Centre.

Previously, he was Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy at the US Naval War College, and served on the US Secretary of State's policy planning staff from 2015 to 2017. In that role, he advised Secretary of State John Kerry on political and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. Edel worked at Peking University's Center for International and Strategic Studies as a Henry Luce Scholar and was also awarded the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship.

Dr Merriden Varrall is Director of the East Asia Program at the Lowy Institute. Before joining the Lowy Institute, Merriden was the Assistant Country Director and Senior Policy Advisor at UNDP China, where she focusing on China’s international development cooperation policy. She has spent almost eight years living and working in China, including lecturing in foreign policy at the China Foreign Affairs University.

Sam Mostyn has enjoyed a diverse career across business, politics, science and the arts, international development, not-for-profit sector, Indigenous reconciliation and sport. After many years in senior corporate management roles in telecommunications, broadcasting and insurance, Sam now serves as a non-executive director on the boards of Virgin Australia, Transurban, Mirvac, and chairs Citibank Australia.

She is recognised as a sustainability leader, and continues to work across a number of industries and sectors. For the past 4 years, Sam has been the President of the Australian Council for International Development, the peak body for the 130 international aid and development organisations in Australia. Her term concluded in November 2017.