Australia-Philippines security cooperation in the South China Sea: Anticipating policy challenges during Trump 2.0 and beyond’

The Panellists

• More details about Dr Beverley Loke (Chair)

  Dr Beverley Loke (Chair)

  Beverley Loke is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University (ANU). She is also a Visiting Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, and an affiliate with the ANU Australian Centre on China in the World. Her research interests include the politics of great power responsibility and hegemonic ordering, China’s foreign policy, global knowledge production practices, and the international relations of the Indo-Pacific. She has recently published in the European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Studies, Australian Journal of International Affairs and China Quarterly.

• More details about Professor Herman Joseph S. Kraft

  Professor Herman Joseph S. Kraft

  Herman Joseph S. Kraft is a Professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines at Diliman, Quezon City. He has been working on issues that involve the ASEAN, regional security in Southeast Asia, security sector reform, and maritime security in the Philippines. His recent publications include: “A Philippine Perspective on China’s WMD Threat (2024),” “Global International Relations in Southeast Asia (2024) (with multiple co-authors),” “Teaching IR in the Philippines” (2022); “Great Power Dynamics and the Waning of ASEAN Centrality in Regional Security” (2017); “Philippine Foreign Policy in a Changed Strategic Environment: The Duterte Administration and China” (2018); “ASEAN and the Protection of Migrant Rights” (2019); and “Korea's New Southern Policy, ASEAN, and the Philippines: Middle Power Dynamics in Southeast Asia” (2020).

• More details about Emeritus Professor William Tow

  Emeritus Professor William Tow

  William T. Tow is an Emeritus Professor at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. He was previously Professor of International Relations at the University of Queensland and at Griffith University in Australia, and an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC), Professor Emeritus Tow has been a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University, and a Visiting Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. He was a Visiting Professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore (2012 and again in 2016) and held an ASEAN Bualuang Professorship at Thammasat University. Professor Tow has been principal investigator in two major projects for the MacArthur Foundation’s Asia Pacific Security Initiative. His research has also been supported by the Australian Department of Defence, Australian Research Council, the Ford Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the Korea Foundation, and other granting agencies. He has also been the editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs and served on the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT’s) Foreign Affairs Council and on the National Board of Directors, Australian Fulbright Commission. Professor Tow’s research interests include alliance politics, US security policy in the Asia-Pacific, security politics in the Asia-Pacific, and Australian security policies. He has authored or edited 30 books and monographs and over a hundred journal articles or book chapters on these topics. He received his PhD in International Relations from the University of Southern California or USC (1977), his MA in International Relations from USC (1973), and his BA in History from the University of Redlands (1970).

• More details about Dr Virgemarie Salazar

  Dr Virgemarie Salazar

  Virgemarie Salazar is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science in the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she teaches international relations and qualitative research courses. She obtained her doctoral degree in Asia-Pacific Studies from the National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. Before pursuing her PhD, she worked as a Senior Foreign Affairs Research Specialist at the Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies of the Foreign Service Institute, the research and training arm of the Department of Foreign Affairs. She served as head of the International Organizations Section from 2015 to 2018. Her research interests include regionalism in Southeast Asia, non-traditional security issues such as disasters and climate change, and Philippine foreign policy.

• More details about Ms Alynna Carlos

  Ms Alynna Carlos

  Alynna Carlos is currently pursuing a Masters of Maritime Policy at the University of Wollongong, under the Australia Awards Maritime Security Scholarship program. In 2025, she completed her master's degree in International Studies from the University of the Philippines, where she wrote a thesis on minilateralism in the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas. Previously, she served at the Presidential Office for Maritime Concerns and the National Maritime Council of the Philippines.

• More details about Professor Brendan Taylor

  Professor Brendan Taylor

  Brendan Taylor is Professor of Strategic Studies at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC), Australian National University. He was Head of SDSC from 2011-2016 and again from 2022-2025. He is a specialist on great power strategic relations in the Asia-Pacific, East Asian ‘flashpoints’, and Asian security architecture. His writings on these subjects have appeared in such leading journals as Survival, The Washington Quarterly, Australian Foreign Affairs, The Pacific Review, International Affairs and Review of International Studies. He is the author or editor of 14 books, including The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War (Black Inc, 2018) and Dangerous Decade: Taiwan’s Security and Crisis Management(IISS, 2019). He is a regular op-ed contributor to such publications as The Australian, The Straits Times, Foreign Policy, The Australian Financial Review, The Interpreter, East Asia Forum and The Strategist.