Asia Rising

The South China Sea disputes play out both at sea and in the stories people hear about them. Journalists face the challenge of handling sensitive (and most often restricted) information, navigating competing political narratives, and bringing the experiences of coastal communities into public view. What does it take to report independently on an issue so closely tied to national identity and security?

Guest: Christian Esguerra, (Political journalist, host the political podcast Facts First).

Recorded 29th September, 2026.

China’s new Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress is presented by Beijing as a policy of development and equality. For Tibetans, it represents something very different.

In this episode, , joins host Dr Ruth Gamble to discuss what the law means in practice for Tibetan language, culture, and religious life — and why those things matter so much to understanding the Tibetan situation.

Dr Densal also discusses his research on the communities living along the disputed India-China border, the contested question of reincarnated Buddhist leaders, and what people outside the region most often misunderstand about Tibet.

Guest:

Dr Tenzin Densal (Senior Research Fellow, Tibet Policy Institute and Editor-in-Chief of the Tibet Policy Journal)

Host:

Dr Ruth Gamble (Director, La Trobe Asia)

Recorded 18th September, 2026

The waters of the South China Sea - including areas the Philippines refers to as the West Philippine Sea - are at the centre of some of the Indo-Pacific’s most important maritime disputes. These waters bring together competing territorial and maritime claims, strategic interests, and the rights and interests of coastal states. They are also vital to fishing communities and populations whose livelihoods and security depend on access to the sea.

How maritime rights, jurisdiction, and access are interpreted and managed has implications for regional stability and international law. The future of freedom of navigation, the peaceful resolution of disputes, who has access to resources, and the ability of states to manage differences without coercion are questions with significance well beyond the South China Sea.

What does the situation in the West Philippine Sea reveal about the resilience of international law? How are regional states responding to the pressures of great-power competition while advancing and protecting their maritime rights? And what are the human dimensions of these disputes: for fishing communities, coast guard personnel, and coastal populations whose lives are shaped by what happens in these waters?

A La Trobe Centre for Global Security event in association with Australians for Philippine Human Rights Network

Panel:

Rear Admiral Jay Tristan Tarriela (spokesperson, Philippine Coast Guard on West Philippine Sea issues)

Christian Esguerra (political journalist and educator)

Dr Lupita Wijaya (Research Fellow, La Trobe Centre for Global Security)

Professor Bec Strating (Director, La Trobe Centre for Global Security)(Chair)

Held on 29th September, 2026.

Few diplomatic careers span Moscow during the invasion of Ukraine, the remote islands of the Pacific, and Canberra. Germany's Ambassador to Australia, Beate Grzeski, has lived all three - and the thread connecting them says something about how the world is changing.

In this episode, Ambassador Grzeski reflects on her journey from Deputy Head of Mission in Moscow to Germany's inaugural Special Envoy for the Pacific Island States, discussing what drew Berlin's attention to a region it had long overlooked, the challenges of building meaningful partnerships with Pacific communities, and what climate mobility means for the future of the region.

Guest: Beate Grzeski (Ambassador of Germany to Australia)

Recorded 26th August, 2026.

Few events in recent history have generated as much confusion, controversy, and misinformation as the COVID-19 pandemic. Five years on, the origins of COVID remain contested, and the lessons of how that debate played out carry hard implications for global health security for years to come.

Guest: Elizabeth Finkel. (Science journalist, Co-founder of Cosmos Magazine, and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at La Trobe University,)

Prove It: A Scientific Guide for the Post-Truth Era, ;published by La Trobe University Press

Recorded on 29th June, 2026.

The Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is fast becoming one of the world's most contested global commons. Home to critical sea lanes, energy and trade corridors, and a growing contest for influence among major and middle powers, traditional security challenges are growing and competing.

The region is especially vulnerable to cascading effects of a changing climate, warming oceans and increasing frequency of natural events that are colliding with traditional security parameters. As Australia deepens and attempts to diversify cooperation with partners including United States, Japan, Indonesia and India amongst others across the region, understanding the strategic importance of the region has never been more crucial. The effects are beyond notions of traditional security and have an impact on economic resilience, food security and future growth.

How does this play out for Australia's security and its future within the IOR? How do regional powers particularly US, China and India view and act within the IOR and how do these actions affect Australia?

PANEL:

Professor Peter Dean (Senior Adviser for Defence Strategy, United States Studies Centre; Professor of Strategic Studies, Australian National University)

Dr Arzan Tarapore (Research Scholar, Stanford University)

Ambika Vishwanath (Principal Research Fellow, La Trobe Centre for Global Security, La Trobe University)

Professor Bec Strating (Director, La Trobe Centre for Global Security, La Trobe University)(Chair)

Recorded on 3rd September, 2026.

Security policy has traditionally been built around the state: its borders, its military capability, its ability to deter external threats. Gender-based violence rarely features, despite being one of the most persistent and predictable forms of harm in the world, in peacetime and exacerbated during conflict. Treating gender-based violence solely as a private, social, health or humanitarian issue without recognition of it as a security one has consequences: it shapes what gets funded, what gets measured, and whose safety counts as a matter of state responsibility.

When it comes to policy, prevention and intervention, the gap between that recognition and practice remains stark, and the impact through violence, displacement and death, notably femicide, continues to rise alongside global military spending. By comparison, funding to address gender-based violence remains miniscule. This event asks what it would mean to take that gap seriously: why gender-based violence functions as both a cause and a consequence of insecurity, and what a security framework would look like if it were built around who is actually being harmed.

This event is a collaboration between La Trobe Centre for Global Security and Reducing Gender Based Violence Network (ReGEN).

Speakers:

Professor Elizabeth Miller (Deputy Director (Strategic Planning and Coordination), Integrated Center for Women's Health)

Desireé LaGrappe (Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University and Chair, ReGEN)

Dr Jessica Ison (Deputy Director, Reducing Gender-Based Violence Research Group (ReGEN), La Trobe Rural Health School)

Dr Natasha Singh Raghuvanshi (Politics and International Relations, La Trobe University)

Professor Bec Strating (Director, La Trobe Centre for Global Security)

Emeritus Professor Dennis Altman (Vice-Chancellor's Fellow, La Trobe University)

Recorded on 1st September, 2026.

A content warning that this discussion includes topics of violence and abuse. We recognise that these experiences are common in Australia and globally, and that these issues may have affected members of our audience personally or through someone they know.

Please take care of yourself during and after the session in whatever way feels right for you. If anything raised during the conversation is difficult or distressing, we encourage you to speak with someone you trust or seek additional support.

For more information and resources, please consult: https://www.latrobe.edu.au/research/violetmarshman/regennetwork/resources-and-support

China is ageing faster than almost any other country in history. Decades of the one-child policy, rising life expectancy, and rapid urbanisation have produced a demographic shift of enormous scale — and with it, a growing burden of age-related conditions that health systems were not designed to manage. Among the most significant is dementia, and its precursor, Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Guest: Professor George Liu (Professor and Associate Dean of International Partnerships, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University)

Recorded 13 July, 2026

For Pacific Island communities, climate change is not a future threat, but a present reality. Intensifying El Niño events, displacement, and compounding security challenges are reshaping the region, even as global attention has been diverted by energy crises and fossil fuel disruption.

Climate mobility - the movement of people in response to climate impacts - is emerging as both a critical challenge and an opportunity to reframe how external partners engage with the Pacific. What does a genuine model of climate, peace, and security partnership that centres mobility look like? And how can outside partners align their support with Pacific-led priorities rather than imposing solutions?

This Melbourne Climate Talk is hosted by the German Embassy in Canberra in partnership with the La Trobe Centre for Global Security. It brings together Pacific and regional experts to explore mobility as a pathway to stronger, more equitable climate partnerships, and to build momentum ahead of UNFCCC Pre-COP discussions in Fiji and Tuvalu.

Speakers:

Ms Beate Grzeski (Ambassador of Germany to Australia)

Dr Aiden Craney (Research Fellow, Centre for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University)

Dr Jason Titifanue (Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Melbourne)

Dr Lauren Nishimura (Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne)

Ms Bateteba Aselu (PhD candidate, School of Geography, University of Melbourne)

Dr Sara Gosper, (Manager, International Partnerships and Engagement, RMIT)(Chair)

Professor Nick Bisley (Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), La Trobe University)

Recorded on 26th August, 2026

Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing digital regions in the world, with an economy projected to exceed $300 billion in gross merchandise value and over 200 million internet users. But that digital growth is outpacing the legal frameworks, institutional capacity, and cybersecurity architecture needed to govern it. And with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence accelerating both the sophistication of cyber threats and the difficulty of holding anyone accountable the stakes have never been higher.

Guest:

Report:

Recorded on 15th July, 2026.