Governance

La Trobe Asia Annual Reports

Each year, La Trobe Asia produces a report to provide an overview of their work.

These are available for download:

2020 [PDF 1.7MB]

2019 [PDF 4MB]

2018 [PDF 670KB]

2017 [PDF 701KB]

2016 [PDF 600KB]

2015 [PDF 555KB]

2014 [PDF 616KB]

La Trobe Asia Advisory Board

La Trobe Asia has an Advisory Board to provide strategic advice to the Vice-Chancellor and President of La Trobe University and the Executive Director of La Trobe Asia about its engagement with Asia and developments external to the University.  The Board  provides input into developments in Asia's tertiary sector, opportunities for partnerships with institutions and organisations in Asia and provides external advice on the operations of La Trobe Asia.  The Board meet annually.

Members of the Advisory Board are:

• Meenakshi Gopinath
• Geoff Raby AO
• David Capie
• Huong Le Thu
• Lynn Kuok
• Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby
• Dewi Fortuna Anwar
• Rudra Chaudhuri
• Leif-Eric Easley
• Alice Ba
• Alessio Patalano
• Bridie Rice

Advisory Board Members

Meenakshi Gopinath

Meenakshi Gopinath is currently Founder and Director of WISCOMP (Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace), an initiative that seeks to promote the leadership of South Asian women in the areas of peace, security and regional cooperation. She is also Chair, Board of Governors, Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Life Trustee- India International Centre (IIC), and Principal Emerita of Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, where she served as Principal for 26 years from 1988-2014. She has been a member of the University Grants Commission (UGC), India.

Dr Gopinath was the first woman to be nominated to the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) of India. She is a member of multi-track peace initiatives and people-to-people dialogues in South Asia. She has authored among others Pakistan in Transition, and co-authored Conflict Resolution – Trends and Prospects, Transcending Conflict: A Resource book on Conflict Transformation and Dialogic Engagement and has contributed chapters and articles in several books and journals on Gandhi, the politics of Pakistan, Conflict Resolution, Gender and Peace Building et al. Her interests include issues of human rights and gender, conflict transformation and Buddhist and Gandhian philosophy and the performing Arts. She also headed the Task Force of the SAKSHAM Report of the University Grants Commission that initiated several policy reforms on Gender Equity on Higher Education Institutes in India

In recognition of her contribution to the field of women’s education and empowerment, she has received several awards including the Padma Shri Award, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi Award, the Rajiv Gandhi Award for Excellence in Education and the Mahila Shiromani Award and the Delhi Citizen Forum Award and Qimpro Platinum Standard Award for Education and Celebrating Womanhood South Asian Recognition Award for Social Harmony and International Lifetime Achievement Award – 2009 for outstanding work in the field of justice, Equity, Peace and Progress and the L.M. Singhvi fellowship Award at the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies (DDMI), University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Award of the Honorary Doctorate Degree of Letters (Honoris Causa) for significant contribution to the education of women and the commitment to fostering global peace through Conflict Resolution, La Trobe University, Australia, Distinguished Alumna Award, by Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi for meritorious contribution in the field of Education and Nirbhaya Puraskar 2017, by OYSS Women for exemplary courage and accomplishment in the field of Education. She was Distinguished Visiting Scholar, School of Social Sciences, Monash University (2015)

Dr Gopinath serves on the Governing Boards of research institutes, NGOs, educational institutions and corporate bodies. Life Trustee- India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi. She also is a member of the Nonviolent Peaceforce - International, on the Council of UPEACE– a UN Mandated University, Asian University for Women, Shri Ram Foundation, Track Two initiatives in the South Asian region, Editor in Chief, Peace Prints- A South Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, New Delhi, and others. She has been a Fulbright scholar and has received several fellowships including the Australian International Education Foundation Fellowship (1996-97) and the University Grants Commission Indo-Israel Exchange Fellowship (1994-1996) among others.

David Capie

Huong Le Thu

Geoff Raby AO

Geoff Raby was Australia’s Ambassador to China from 2007-11, during which he visited all provinces in China officially. He served in Beijing as First Secretary (Economic) and then Counsellor (Economic), 1986-91. He was Ambassador to the WTO in Geneva (1998-2001), Ambassador to APEC (2003-06), and Deputy Secretary, 2003-07. He was also head of the Trade Policy Issues Division of the OECD, Paris, 1993-95.

On leaving government service in August 2011, he established Geoff Raby and Associates, a Beijing-based corporate advisory specialising in strategic analysis with respect to China. He also served as an independent non-executive director with ASX-listed Fortescue Metals, OceanaGold as chair of the Health, Safety, and Community sub-committee, Yancoal also as chair of the Health, Safety, Environment and Community Committee sub-committee, Isentia, and as the Board Chair of Smarttrans.

His not-profit roles have included Chair of VisAsia at the NSW Gallery and as a member of the board of the Foundations at the Gavan Institute and National Gallery of Victoria. He is currently Chair of the Australia-China Arts Residency charity.

His most recent book, Great Game On: The Contest for Central Asia and Global Supremacy, was published by Melbourne University Press on 12 November 2024 and is now in its second print run. His previous book was China’s Grand Strategy and Australia’s Future in the World Order (MUP Nov 2020) and was reprinted five times; the second edition was released in May 2025. He regularly contributes op eds and travel writing to the Australian Financial Review. He holds a PhD in economics. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Federation University and also by La Trobe University.

He was awarded the Order of Australia (AO) in June 2019 for services to Australia-China bilateral relations and to multilateral trade. He was awarded Chile’s Order of Bernand O’Higgins, the highest non-military award for foreigners, for services to international trade, especially agricultural trade in 2002.

Lynn Kuok

Dr Lynn Kuok is the Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asia Studies at the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, particularly US-China-Southeast Asia ties and the South China Sea; and Europe’s engagement with the Indo-Pacific. She is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Previously, she was the Shangri-La Dialogue Senior Fellow for Asia-Pacific Security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She has held fellowships at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Centre for International Law,
Dr Kuok served as Editor-in-Chief of three major journals: the Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment (with Dr Tim Huxley), the Cambridge Review of International Affairs and the Singapore Law Review.

Her writing has appeared in leading publications, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Survival, The Wall Street Journal, and Nikkei Asia. She is a regular contributor to broadcast and print media, such as the BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and has presented her work at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Cambridge, among other institutions.

Dr Kuok has provided expert testimony before the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the UK House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee, and the UK House of Commons Defence Committee. She has also lectured at national diplomatic and defence institutions, including the US Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute, the UK’s Royal College of Defence Studies, and the Australian War College.

Dr Kuok currently serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Geopolitics and previously served on its Global Future Council on the Future of International Security, reflecting her continued role in shaping global policy discussions.

Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby

Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of International Studies at De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. She is the Senior Editor of Asian Politics and Policy (Wiley), and Co-Editor of Bandung: Journal of the Global South (Brill). She sits on the Review of International Studies (Cambridge) editorial board and is the Southeast Asia Chair for the Institute for Regional Security’s Security Challenges. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the National Interest (Philippines). Her areas of specialization are alliances, maritime security, security cooperation, and critical international relations theory.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar

Dewi Fortuna Anwar straddles the world of academia, political activism and government. She is Research Professor at the Research Centre for Politics-National Research and Innovation Agency (PRP-BRIN), formerly known as the Research Centre for Politics-Indonesian Institute of Sciences (P2P-LIPI). She has written widely on Indonesia’s foreign policy, Indonesia’s democratisation and on ASEAN and regional political and security issues. She is an Academician of the Social Science Commission-Indonesian Academy of Sciences (KIS-AIPI), Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Habibie Center (THC), and co-founder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI). She served as the Deputy Chairman for Social Sciences and Humanities- Indonesian Institute of Sciences (IPSK-LIPI) from 2001 to 2010. She is the Pok Rafeah Chairholder at IKMAS National University of Malaysia (April-Oct. 2025). She was the Kippenberger Visiting Chair at Victoria University, Wellington (October-November 2018), and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the RSIS, NTU, Singapore (August 2017-July 2018). From October 2010 to February 2017 Dewi first served as Deputy Secretary for Political Affairs and then Deputy for Government Policy Support to the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia (Vice President Boediono and Vice President M. Jusuf Kalla). Dewi was Assistant for Global Affairs to Vice President B.J. Habibie and then Presidential Spoke-person/ Assistant Minister State Secretary for Foreign Affairs (1998-1999) under President B.J. Habibie.

Dewi sits and has sat in a number of national and international advisory boards. She is currently a member of the Foundation Board of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) based in Geneva, an Advisory Board member of the UWA Public Policy Institute, University of Western Australia, a board member of the Centre for Policy Development (CPD) in Australia and a member of the International Advisory Panel of the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore (2021-2024), a Governing Board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in 2010-2020 and a Board Member of Shift Project promoting business and human rights based in New York in 2014-2020. She served as a member of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC) in 2004-2008, and a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters in 2008-2012. She is a member of the Asia Pacific Leadership Network (APLN) on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.

Dewi obtained her PhD from Monash University, Melbourne in 1990, while her M.A. and B.A. (Hons) were from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1982 and 1981 respectively. She is married with two children.

Rudra Chaudhuri

Rudra Chaudhuri is the director of Carnegie India. His research focuses on the diplomatic history of South Asia, contemporary security issues, and the important role of emerging technologies and digital public infrastructure in diplomacy, statecraft, and development. He and his team at Carnegie India chair and convene the Global Technology Summit, co-hosted with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

He is the author of Forged in Crisis: India and the United States Since 1947 (published in the UK by Hurst in 2013 and in the United States and South Asia by Oxford University Press and Harper Collins, respectively, in 2014). He is the editor of War and Peace in Contemporary India (published in the UK by Routledge in 2022). His research has been published in scholarly journals such as The International History Review, Diplomacy & Statecraft, the Journal of Strategic Studies, International Affairs, RUSI Journal, India Review, and Defense Studies, along with other academic and policy-focused journals.

He has served as a lecturer and a senior lecturer at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London from 2009 to 2022 (on leave since 2018). In 2012, he established the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office’s (FCDO) Diplomatic Academy for South Asia at King’s College London. He served as its founding director from 2013 to 2022. He previously taught at the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College. He holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London. In February 2024, he was nominated as a visiting senior research fellow at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.

Leif-Eric Easley

Alice Ba

Alice D. Ba is Emma Smith Morris Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations. She has published widely on the international relations of East and Southeast Asia, ASEAN and the politics and processes of regionalism, and Southeast Asia's relations with China and the United States. The author of (Re)Negotiating East and Southeast Asia: Region, Regionalism, and ASEAN (Stanford 2009), she also co-edited (with Mattew J. Hoffmann), Contending Perspectives on Global Governance (Routledge 2005). Recent publications have addressed the roles of strategic narratives in Southeast Asia, multilateralism and Asia’s transitioning order, ASEAN’s legitimation strategies and challenges, and the interplay between institutional frameworks in Asia.

She has received US Fulbright awards for work in Beijing and Singapore. At the University of Delaware, she served as Department Acting Chair (2023-2024) and Associate Chair (2022-2023, 2024-2026), and Director of Asian Studies (2009-2014).

Alessio Patalano

Bridi Rice

Bridi Rice is CEO of the Development Intelligence Lab and co-founder of the Asia Pacific Development, Diplomacy and Defence Dialogue. Bridi’s career in development and foreign policy includes a three-year stint as Director at the Australian Council for International Development, eight years as a senior public servant for the Attorney-General’s Department and two years as a Senior Manager at global consulting firm Ernst & Young.

Bridi was the 2021 national awardee of the Fulbright Scholarship in Not-for-Profit Leadership. Bridi is a National Security College Expert Associate and a Senior Associate with the Project on Fragility and Mobility and the Project on Prosperity and Development at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies.