I am Professor of International Security in the School of Society and Culture at Adelaide University. You can see my professorial lecture here. Before moving to Adelaide in July 2020, I spent more than eight years in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University (ANU).

I am also the research director of the Security in the Pacific Islands program in the Stretton Institute at Adelaide University, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution.

My research focuses on Australia’s policy and security and peacebuilding in the Pacific Islands region. I am the author or editor of ten books, including Constitution making during State building (CUP 2014), Pacific Power? Australia's Strategy in the Pacific Islands (MUP 2017), and Girt by Sea: Re-Imagining Australia’s Security (with Rebecca Strating; La Trobe UP 2024). My next book, Neighbours: Australia and the Pacific Islands (with Jack Corbett), is forthcoming with La Trobe UP in 2026.

I am the chief investigator of the Mapping Pacific Networks project with partners based in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It is funded by the Defence Innovation Partnership Activator Fund with a contribution from the Australian Defence Science and Technology Group.

I am also the chief investigator of a Defence Strategic Policy Grant considering how Pacific Island countries and their partners can best target and coordinate maritime security assistance.

Between 2022 and 2025, I was the chief investigator of the Regional Perspectives Research Project with partners based in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It was funded under a collaborative research agreement with the Australian Defence Science and Technology Group.

I have also previously conducted Australian Research Council Discovery Projects on the impact of political reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific, state-building in Melanesia, and the operation of the Australia-New Zealand alliance in the Pacific Islands.

I have also previously led Defence Strategic Policy Grants analysing the potential of a networked security architecture in the Pacific Islands and how tools of statecraft are used in the Pacific Islands region.

I am the editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs. I am on the editorial boards of Peacebuilding, Global Studies Quarterly, and the Australian Army Journal, and the international editorial board of The Round Table. I was previously on the editorial advisory committee of Asia Policy. Between 2019 and 2021 I was an Associate Editor of Peacebuilding.

I completed my PhD in 2012 at the University of Cambridge as a Poynton Cambridge Australia and Wolfson College Commonwealth scholar. I completed Masters degrees in Arts and Law at the University of Melbourne.

I have been a Fulbright Scholar at the Walker Institute of International & Area Studies, University of South Carolina; a Visiting Scholar at the State, Society & Governance in Melanesia Project, ANU; an Honorary Fellow of the School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Melbourne; and a Visiting Scholar at the East-West Center, Honolulu.

I am an affiliate of the Overseas Development Institute, a member of the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab, a member of the Advisory Group of AP4D (the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy, and Defence Dialogue), and a member of the Advisory Board of Women in International Security - Australia. I regularly brief government agencies, write analyses for think tanks, and participate in international strategic dialogues, including as a delegate to the Australia-America Leadership Dialogue. In 2019 I was a visiting scholar at the Australian Civil Military Centre (Australian Department of Defence).

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2016, I won a National Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning and ANU Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence. I have taught at the ANU, Australian War College, University of Cambridge, and the University of Melbourne. I have also delivered professional education programs for the Australian War College, the Department of Defence, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Department of Home Affairs.

I was previously a lawyer at Allens Arthur Robinson (now Allens Linklaters) and I am admitted as a barrister and solicitor in the Supreme Court of Victoria and High Court of Australia.

I have three children and was on maternity leave January-November 2015 and February 2017-September 2018.