Joanne Wallis

Joanne Wallis is a professor of international security, director of the Stretton Institute for Public Policy, and Academic Lead (Students) in the School of Society and Culture at Adelaide University. She is also the co-editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs. Before moving to Adelaide, Joanne worked for more than eight years in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University.

Joanne is an expert on security, peacebuilding, and Australia’s strategy in the Pacific Islands. She is the author or editor of 11 books, including “Constitution Making during State Building” (CUP, 2014); “Pacific Power? Australia’s Strategy in the Pacific Islands” (MUP, 2017); “Girt by Sea: Reimagining Australia’s Security” (with Rebecca Strating; La Trobe UP, 2024); and “Neighbours: Australia and the Pacific” (with Jack Corbett, La Trobe UP, 2026). Joanne leads a Defence Strategic Policy Grant project on Pacific maritime security cooperation and a collaborative project, Mapping Pacific Networks, with the Defence Science and Technology Group and researchers in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu funded by the Defence Innovation Partnership Activator Fund.

Joanne has completed commissioned policy research for the National Bureau of Asian Research, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, British Army, and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. She has been a visiting scholar at the Australian Civil-Military Centre and the East-West Center in Hawaii.

Joanne completed her doctoral degree at the University of Cambridge and master’s and honors degrees in arts and law at the University of Melbourne. Before academia she was a lawyer at Allens in Melbourne and she is admitted as a barrister and solicitor in the Supreme Court of Victoria and High Court of Australia.

Affiliations:

• AP4D (the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy, and Defence Dialogue), advisory group member
• International Studies Association, member
• National Security College at the Australian National University, expert associate
• Overseas Development Institute, affiliate
• UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab, member
• Women in International Security-Australia, member, advisory board member