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Global Security Nexus Volume 51, Issue 2, 2026
DR. JAY L. BATONGBACAL is a professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law, where he chairs the graduate studies committee and directs the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea. He has bachelor’s degrees in political science and law from the University of the Philippines, and a master’s in marine management and a doctorate in law from Dalhousie University in Canada. He was legal advisor to the Philippine delegation that successfully pursued the nation’s claim to a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles in the Benham Rise Region in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Featured on Page 12
HARSH V. PANT is vice president of studies and foreign policy at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in New Delhi. He also is an international relations professor with the King’s India Institute at King’s College London and honorary director of the Delhi School of Transnational Affairs at Delhi University. He researches Asian security issues and has written for The Japan Times, the Hindustan Times, The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal.
SAYANTAN HALDAR is an associate fellow with ORF’s Strategic Studies Programme, focusing on maritime studies. His expertise includes geopolitics, maritime security and regionalism in the Indian Ocean and the Arctic. He is pursuing a doctoral degree and his academic work has appeared in the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, International Affairs and Maritime Studies, among other publications. He also has written for the Hindustan Times, The Hindu and The Telegraph. Featured on Page 24
DR. TAE-EUN SONG is an assistant professor in the Department of International Security and Unification Studies at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, under the Republic of Korea (ROK) Foreign Affairs Ministry. She is an advisory committee member for the ROK Cyber Operations Command and Defense Counterintelligence Command, and research chief of the Emerging Technologies and Cybersecurity Study Committee of the Korean Association of International Studies and Korean Association of Cybersecurity Studies. She received a doctorate in international relations from Seoul National University and a master’s degree from the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on cyberwarfare, hybrid threats, information and cognitive warfare, influence operations, and strategic communications. Featured on Page 34
RETIRED LT. GEN. ROY M. GALIDO served as Philippine Army commanding general from August 2023 to July 2025, retiring after 39 years of service. He graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1990 and previously commanded the 6th Infantry Division, 601st Infantry Brigade and 40th Infantry Battalion. He has master’s degrees in management from Philippine Christian University, information technology from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and public management from the Development Academy of the Philippines. Featured on Page 44
Peace Through Strength Volume 51, Issue 1, 2026
SAROSH BANA is executive editor of Business India magazine in Mumbai. He also is the Indo-Pacific regional editor for Germany’s Naval Forces journal and India correspondent for the Sydney, Australia-based Asia Pacific Security Magazine. His work focuses on defense and security, cybersecurity, international affairs, policy and strategy, space, power and energy, and environment and conservation. He studied in India, Germany and Switzerland and served as a board member of the East-West Center, a Hawaii-based think tank. Featured on Page 28
DR. ALFRED OEHLERS joined the Hawaii-based Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in 2007. Specializing in the political economy of security, growth and development in the Indo-Pacific, he teaches and writes extensively, including on East and Southeast Asia as well as the Pacific Islands. He previously was an associate professor at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. He earned his doctorate in political economy from the University of Sydney and holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in economics from Macquarie University, also in Australia. Featured on Page 32
LT. COL. HARRY LU is the Plans and Exercises branch chief for the U.S. Army Pacific’s Theater Fires Element, which plans, coordinates and employs strategic, joint and multinational fires and effects in support of the combatant commander. He previously served as operations officer for the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, at Fort Bliss, Texas. Lu has master’s degrees in public administration from Columbia University and global supply chain management from the University of Kansas. Featured on Page 38
DR. JINGHAO ZHOU is an associate professor of Asian studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York. His research focuses on Chinese ideology, politics and religions, and U.S.-China relations. He has authored dozens of journal and news articles and four books, including “Why Is the China Model Losing Its Power? — Challenges and Opportunities of the Second Global Competition.” Featured on Page 42
CHELSEY KANESHIRO is a strategic communications specialist with the Hawaii-based Joint Interagency Task Force West, which serves as the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s focal point for countering drug trafficking. She has degrees in studio art and Japanese language from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Featured on Page 52
COL. EDDIE MASKELL-PEDERSEN is head of the British Defence Staff Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom’s defense advisor to Singapore. Commissioned into the British Army in 1999, he worked in electronic warfare and countermeasures. He deployed to Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq and Northern Ireland. He was twice awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service for his work as a U.K. task force lead planner in Afghanistan and as a deputy director for the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, the multinational coalition that fought the Islamic State group. Featured on Page 54
Integrated and Dynamic Volume 50, Issue 4, 2025
RETIRED INDIAN ARMY MAJ. GEN. S B ASTHANA is a strategy and security analyst who held key appointments in the Indian Army, United Nations and United Service Institution of India. A decorated infantry general, he has more than 40 years of national and international experience. A commentator and public speaker, he has appeared on more than 3,000 international TV shows and has spoken at strategic military forums and before United Nations groups. He has written over 450 articles about strategy and the military. Featured on Page 30
RETIRED U.S. AIR FORCE BRIG. GEN. DAVID STILWELL served as U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 2019-21. He began his military career as an enlisted Korean linguist in 1980 and retired in 2015 as the Asia advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He served multiple tours in Japan and South Korea as a linguist, fighter pilot and commander, and was the defense attache at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 2011-13. Awarded the U.S. Defense Department Superior Service Award in 2015, he was director of the China Strategic Focus Group at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii from 2017-19. Featured on Page 36
REAR ADM. JACQUES MALLARD has commanded the French strike force since August 2023. In this role, he commanded the amphibious task force deployed in the eastern Mediterranean after the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023; the French carrier strike group deployed during the Akila mission in spring 2024; and the Clemenceau 25 mission from November 2024-April 2025. He is a 1991 graduate of the French Naval Academy and a naval aviator with more than 2,500 flying hours and 62 combat missions. He also has been cited six times for his contributions to air-sea operations. Featured on Page 40
GEN. XAVIER T. BRUNSON is commander of the United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command and United States Forces Korea at Camp Humphreys in South Korea. He is the senior U.S. military officer assigned to Korea. Brunson has held staff and command positions in conventional and special operations forces. He served in operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, Freedom’s Sentinel and Inherent Resolve. He has received myriad military and civic honors, including the Thomas Knowlton Award for military intelligence and the U.S. National Park Service’s Trailblazer Award. Featured on Page 46
NOR AINI BINTI MOHD NORDIN is assistant director of maritime security at the Malaysian Institute of Defence and Security (MiDAS), part of the nation’s Defence Ministry. She previously was the institute’s assistant director of nonmilitary affairs, focusing on humanitarian aid and disaster relief, and technology related to nonconventional military operations. Before joining MiDAS, she was principal assistant secretary in the ministry’s Policy and International Relations Branch, where she addressed areas including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Five Power Defence Arrangements. Featured on Page 56
Enduring Readiness Volume 50, Issue 3, 2025
U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Savannah Mesimer is the public affairs chief for United States Forces Japan, where she has served since 2024. She has over eight years of experience in the Marine Corps, including as a communication strategy and operations chief at III Marine Expeditionary Force, and as a combat photographer at 3d Marine Division. She has supported exercises and events in Japan, the Philippines and South Korea. In her current role, she is responsible for strategic communication supporting the Japan-U.S. Alliance. Featured on Page 32
JACOB DOYLE is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience and has been a FORUM contributor for over a decade. He also has written for publications including Unipath, Africa Defense Forum, Budapest Business Journal, Czech Business Weekly, Construction and Investment Journal, and City Newspaper of Rochester, New York. He divides his time between the Indo-Pacific and Europe. Featured on Page 36
LT. COL. RICHARD J. CONNAROE II is the deputy staff judge advocate for the U.S. Army’s 8th Theater Sustainment Command (8TSC), which provides mission command for joint/combined operational-level sustainment within the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility. His team advises on all operations and exercises involving U.S. Army sustainment. Before joining the 8TSC, he was chief of national security law for U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC), which advises the command on operations, including humanitarian, information, cyber and space, throughout the region. He also interacted with international partners and spearheaded the USARPAC lawfare and counterlawfare programs. He is a master parachutist and a jumpmaster, leading 69 airborne operations, and served as a field artillery officer, including deploying to Iraq in 2008. Featured on Page 40
CANADIAN ARMY CAPT. NICOLE WIGHT is an engineer officer and second in command at 1 Combat Engineer Regiment’s 15 Support Squadron. Her previous roles include force protection engineering officer, and she is experienced in rapid camp construction and deployed infrastructure design. Wight deployed to Indonesia and Mongolia in 2024, Iraq and Kuwait in 2020, and Latvia in 2018. She earned her bachelor of engineering science degree, specializing in civil engineering, from the University of Western Ontario, and her master of applied science degree, focusing on civil structural engineering and force protection, from the Royal Military College of Canada. Featured on Page 54
SAKIKO HATAYA is a research fellow at the Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Japan. Her research is centered on international organization law and polar law. She also has studied the functions of the Arctic Council. For this edition of FORUM, she highlights the increasing importance of the Arctic in Japan’s ocean policy, including how the Russia-Ukraine war affects the execution of Tokyo’s Arctic policy. Featured on Page 60
Safeguarding Seas Volume 50, Issue 2, 2025
DR. ANDRE J. STRIDIRON III, a retired U.S. Navy officer and pilot, is the Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability program manager for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM). He integrates combined, joint and all-domain training and experimentation in the Indo-Pacific. He earned his doctorate in leadership and organizational change from the University of Southern California in 2019 and received the Pacific Fleet Commander’s Civilian of the Year Award in 2020. Featured on Page 28
CAPT. NOËL BARTLEY is a U.S. Army strategist. She received a master’s degree in public affairs from Brown University. A former signal officer, she has served in various battalion-level positions and as aide-de-camp to the Commandant, U.S. Army Signal School.
CMDR. DANIEL R. POST is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department and co-director of the Perspectives On Modern War course at the U.S. Naval War College. A former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, he most recently served as a nuclear strike advisor with U.S. Strategic Command. Featured on Page 38
SPENCER PETERSEN is a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) intelligence officer and U.S. Air Force reservist stationed at the USINDOPACOM Joint Intelligence Operations Center. He received his U.S. Air Force commission in 2011 and served as an intelligence officer, assistant professor and director of operations until 2020, when he joined the DIA. He has extensive experience supporting joint and combined military planning and operations, including with international partners. Featured on Page 46
DR. SEBASTIAN KEVANY joined the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii in 2021. He specializes in health policy as it relates to diplomacy, foreign policy, international relations, security and global public health. He has expertise in monitoring and evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis, diplomacy, national and international security, conflict resolution, and the use of global health engagement to prevent or resolve conflict. Featured on Page 54
BRIG. BEN MCLENNAN enlisted in the Australian Army Reserve in 1994 and was commissioned in 1999. He is commander of the 3rd Brigade (Armoured Amphibious) and previously commanded infantry platoons, companies, the 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment and the Combat Training Centre. He has been deployed to Afghanistan, the Philippines and Timor-Leste, and completed engagements in France, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, South Korea and the United States. He has a master’s degree in military studies and serves as the Royal Australian Infantry’s deputy head of corps for training. Featured on Page 56
DONGKEUN LEE is a reservist in the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy and a doctoral candidate at the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. He was previously a naval intelligence officer and held military diplomacy positions, including foreign liaison officer at the ROK Navy headquarters. Featured on Page 62