Dr. Bec Strating

Dr. Bec Strating is the Director of La Trobe Asia and an Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations in the Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy.

Her research focuses on maritime disputes in Asia and Australian foreign and defence policy. She has written three monographs, most recently "Defending the Maritime Rules-Based Order" (2020). In 2019, she was awarded an Asian Studies Visiting Fellowship to research at the East West Center in Washington DC for three months. She was also a visiting affiliate fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, an affiliated researcher at Georgetown University and is currently a non-visiting fellow at the Perth US Asia Centre.

She has co-edited two special issues and multiple journal articles and book chapters. In 2019, her second monograph, The Post-Colonial Security Dilemma, was published with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in 2019. In 2018, she was awarded the prestigious Boyer Prize by the Australian Institute of International Affairs for best article published in the Australian Journal of International Affairs in 2017 for her paper ‘Timor-Leste’s Foreign Policy Approach to the Timor Sea: Pipeline or Pipedream?’

She has written over 70 commentary pieces for organisations such as Lowy Institute, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, The Conversation, East Asia Forum, New Mandela, Asia Global Online and Australian Outlook. She regularly provides comment to media including the ABC, the Australian and Sydney Morning Herald. She has testified in Australian federal parliament as an expert witness. B.Strating@latrobe.edu.au