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Professor Bec Strating

Director, La Trobe Asia

Bec Strating is the Director of La Trobe Asia and a Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University, Melbourne. She has extensive experience working in the academia-policy-public engagement nexus in the fields of international diplomacy and security.
Professor Bec Strating
Biography

Her research focuses primarily on Asian regional security, maritime disputes, and Australian foreign and defence policy. She is the author of ‘Girt by Sea: reimagining Australia’s Security’ with Professor Joanne Wallis (La Trobe University Press/Black Inc, 2024, forthcoming) and co-editor of 'Blue Security: Maritime Strategies in the Indo-Pacific' (Routledge, 2024, forthcoming).

Bec has written three sole-authored books, most recently ‘Defending the Maritime Rules-Based Order’ (2020), co-edited two special journal issues and one book (‘Australia on the World Stage’, 2022), and written multiple journal articles and book chapters, most recently in Q1-ranked journals Contemporary Security Policy, Marine Policy, and Pacific Review.

Bec has received over $1.8 million in external research funding. She currently leads the DFAT-funded “Blue Security” network focused on maritime security issues in the Indo-Pacific.

She is currently a non-visiting fellow at the Royal Australian Navy’s Seapower Centre, a member of the East West Centre Council on Indo-Pacific Relations, an expert affiliate at the Australian National University’s National Security College, and President of the Women in International Security Australia’s steering committee. She serves on the editorial boards of the Australian Journal of International Affairs and Journal of Maritime and Territorial Studies.

Bec’s research and engagement has received numerous accolades. Most recently, in 2024, she was awarded the Bernard Brodie Prize for best article published in Contemporary Security Policy in 2023. In 2023, she was awarded the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Excellence in Engagement and Impact award.

Previously, Bec has been an Asian Studies Visiting Fellow at East West Center in Washington DC, visiting affiliate fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, affiliated researcher at Georgetown University and a non-visiting fellow at the Perth US Asia Centre. Bec received her PhD from Monash University in 2013.

She regularly writes commentary pieces for organisations such as Lowy Institute, The Guardian, War on the Rocks, Nikkei Asia, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, The Conversation, East Asia Forum, New Mandela, Asia Global Online, Nine-dash line, and Australian Outlook. She regularly provides comment to media including the ABC, the BBC, Asia News Channel, SCMP, Washington Post, The Australian and Sydney Morning Herald.