Chris Baker is a Research Analyst at the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney and is a member of the Food Security in Asia project sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation.

He teaches International Relations and Globalisation and is completing his PhD on the Environment and Conflict in Asia. He previously taught International Relations and Politics at the University of Tasmania.

Chris has a strong research interest in Asian Security Studies and has lived and taught in Shanghai, PRC.

This thesis is a single case study analysing the methodological framework of eminent conflict and environment researcher, Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon. By taking the framework developed by Homer-Dixon and applying it to the critical region of continental Southeast Asia, I am able to gain both clear and relevant insights into the potential for conflict in the region, as well as test the framework in order to strengthen and develop it. This thesis will make a unique contribution to the discipline of Security Studies and help to shed light on the risks of conflict in the increasingly contested environmental spaces of Asia.

Anthony completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) at the University of NSW in 1990.  He is currently Program Director, West Asia at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, Australia. Before joining the Lowy Institute Anthony was an officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for thirteen years. He has served in Australian diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia and Israel and was Senior Middle East Analyst with the Office of National Assessments from 1996 to 1998.

The thesis will outline how the relationship between Saudi Arabia and China has evolved in the twenty years since formal diplomatic relations were established in 1990 until 2010.  It will assess whether and in what ways the relationship in this period might be defined as ‘strategic’, focusing in particular on Saudi perspectives.   

Ms.  Dinh  Thi  Hien  Luong  joined  the  Institute  of  Strategic  Studies  and  Foreign Policy,  Diplomatic  Academy  of  Vietnam  (formerly  the  Institute  for  International Relations), a think-tank of the  Ministry   of  Foreign Affairs of  Vietnam  from  January  2000.  She  had  previously  been  a  visiting  research  fellow  at  the  Institute of  International  and  Economics  Studies,  Reitaku  University,  Japan  (2007-2008),  the  United   Nation   University/Centre    for  Regional   Integration   Studies,  Bruges, Belgium    (2004),   and   School   of  Social   Sciences,   Universiti   Sains   Malaysia,  Penang, Malaysia (2002). She has a B.A. in international relations from Institute of International Relations, Vietnam and an International Master Degree in regional integration from Universiti Malaya and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. She has written many articles on regionalism in East Asia with special focus on the roles of regional major state actors.  Her latest publication is Vietnam-Japan Relations in the Context of Building an East Asian Community, Asia-Pacific Review, Vol.16, No.1, 2009.

The key investigative task of the study is to analyse the linkages between Chinese political culture, in particular the Confucianism, and the Chinese elites’ sino-centric worldview in contemporary international relations, as well as the nexus between the China Communist Party (CCP)’s ruling legitimacy and China’s projection of power and influence overseas.  

Jennifer earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where she was captain of the Women’s Sabre Fencing team. After university she worked in the IT industry for several years in Baltimore before returning to academia to earn a Master’s Degree in International Security from the University of Sydney.

Jennifer's research interests include Energy Security, Political Risk, and Regional (Middle East) studies. Excerpts from her masters thesis on the impact of oil price volatility on producer states were presented at the Gulf Research Council meeting at Cambridge, and published as a book chapter shortly thereafter.

An American, Jennifer holds a private pilot's license, and is currently studying Arabic. She teaches in the School of Business, United States Studies Centre, and the Department of Government & International Relations.

Jennifer is currently a visiting researcher at the College of Commerce and Economics at Oman's premier institution, Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.

As the regional centre of oil supplies, states in the Gulf have relied on hydrocarbon income “rents” for some decades to fund an extensive social contract which facilitates the exchange of political representation for economic benefits. This research investigates the contestation of the social contract, the metaphorical ties that bind citizen to state, and its rentier-style manifestation. Using a case study of a severely understudied member of the region, Oman, it examines progress in maintaining social and political stability in light of changing economic and political imperatives. 

Michael’s early career was in electronics followed by public radio broadcasting where his roles included programme producer and news reader. Michael has also worked as a consultant in information technology, specialising in Business Process Management for the banking sector.

Ben’s field of interest is food security and he is a part of the Food Security in Asia Program at CISS.  In 2008, Ben was awarded the University of Sydney Hedley Bull prize in International Relations. In 2010 he was awarded a Research Fellowship by the consortium for Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia (NTS-Asia). He is also part of a recently awarded project, funded by the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q), to examine extra-territorial land acquisitions by GCC member states as part of their national food security policies.

Ben is blogmaster of, and contributor to, an international security blogsite: http://www.insight-in-security.com/,

 Ben has 15 years corporate experience including 10 years in international business.  He negotiated deals for, and managed the implementations of, Australian-developed high security technology solutions with government agencies, militaries, intelligence organisations and international financial institutions around the world.

Ben has a Masters degree in International Studies (USYD) and a Bachelor of Industrial Design with Honours (UNSW). On completion of his PhD Ben hopes to continue to research, analyse and publish on significant issues pertaining to food security either at an academic institution or a major international agency such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations or the International Food Policy Research Institute. Ben would like to participate in, and contribute to, the development and implementation of equitable and sustainable food security policies at both national and international levels.

Ben’s PhD project is examining a trend towards the acquisition of agricultural land in developing countries by wealthier countries seeking to hedge against food scarcity risks. Ben is focussing on how these “land deals” are driven by state security concerns at the same time as creating new security and political dilemmas for the states hosting the investments.

Thanks to the 2010 NTS-Asia Research Fellowship, Ben was able to undertake three months fieldwork in the Philippines. The Philippines is a country that badly needs investment in its agricultural sector and its government is actively courting foreign investors. At the same time, it also has substantial food security problems and a long history of (often violent) contestations over land ownership. This makes recent attempts by Gulf-state investors to acquire considerable amounts of agricultural land in the Philippines a particularly interesting case for Ben’s research – especially as the primary purpose of the investments is to repatriate production back to the investors’ home countries. The Filipino project will contribute a major case study for Ben’s PhD thesis. Other case material for his PhD will be related to fieldwork to be undertaken thanks to the SFS-Q research project.

Tim has a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Public International Law from Utrecht University and a Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Sydney. His International Law thesis, The Development of Regional Collective Security: NATO, ECOWAS and the UN Charter, explored the legality of the use of force by regional organisations and argued that under certain circumstances regional organisations may legally use force in the absence of an a priori authorisation by the UN Security Council. His Peace and Conflict thesis, Regional Interactive Conflict Prevention: Exploring the potential of ‘cooperative diplomacy’ to increase the effectiveness of conflict prevention on a regional level, explored how track-two diplomacy can be used on a regional level to make conflict prevention more effective.

After completing his law degree Tim has worked briefly for the World Legal Forum in The Hague. More recently, in 2009 and 2010, he worked as a part-time Research Associate for Pacific Friends of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney.

Tim is currently in Kenya working on his PhD field research, in affiliation with the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies at the University of Nairobi.

A study exploring the national-, environmental- and human security dimensions of food, water and land. The thesis aims to demonstrate that these ‘natural resources’ are – and in the near future will increasingly be – linked to conflict and violence. Case studies from Kenya are used to build and illustrate the argument.