Professor Bec Strating1
1La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
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. 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), which was launched by Foreign Minister Penny Wong in April 2024. She is the co-editor of 'Blue Security: Maritime Strategies in the Indo-Pacific' (Routledge, 2024, forthcoming).
She is an affiliated researcher at Georgetown University, 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.
Previously, Bec has been a non-visiting fellow at the Royal Australian Navy's Seapower Centre, an Asian Studies Visiting Fellow at East West Center in Washington DC, visiting affiliate fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, 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.
Abstract:
As states jostle for regional influence in the context of strategic competition, the waters of East Asia are becoming increasingly crowded with warships, coastguards and civilian vessels as states increasingly engage in ‘naval diplomacy’. Naval diplomacy is a specific subset of diplomacy which states use as a means of political communication as they pursue their national maritime interests. States engaged in naval diplomacy in Southeast Asia have significantly varied capabilities and interests. For some, the use of naval diplomacy is largely driven by their need to protect their legal entitlements under the United Nations of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). For others, naval diplomacy is part of deeper strategy of pursuing a particular version of regional and global order.. What are states trying to achieve with different forms of naval engagement in Southeast Asia, and how can we evaluate their success?