About
Joanne Wallis
Expert

Joanne Wallis

Nonresident Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy, Center for Asia Policy Studies

Joanne Wallis is a professor of international security in the Department of Politics and International Relations and research director of the Security in the Pacific Islands program in the Stretton Institute at the University of Adelaide. Before moving to Adelaide, she worked for more than eight years in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University.

Joanne is the author or editor of nine books, including “Constitution Making during State Building” (CUP, 2014), “Pacific Power? Australia’s Strategy in the Pacific Islands” (MUP, 2017), and “Girt by Sea: Reimagining Australia’s Security” (with Rebecca Strating; La Trobe UP, 2024). Joanne leads the Regional Perspectives Research Project in collaboration with the Defence Science and Technology Group and partners in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, a Defence Strategic Policy grant project on statecraftiness in the Pacific Islands, and an Australian Research Council discovery project analyzing the operation of the Australia-New Zealand alliance in the Pacific Islands.

Joanne is the editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs, on the advisory group of AP4D (the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy, and Defence Dialogue), a member of the advisory board of Women in International Security-Australia, and an expert associate of the National Security College at the Australian National University. She has completed commissioned policy research for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the National Bureau of Asian Research, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. 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 Arthur Robinson (now Allens Linklaters) 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
  • Women in International Security-Australia, member, advisory board member
  • Areas of Expertise

    • Pacific Islands/Oceania
    • Influence and interference
    • Statecraft
  • Current Positions

    • Professor of International Security, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Adelaide
    • Research Director, Security in the Pacific Islands, Stretton Institute, University of Adelaide
  • Past Positions

    • Associate Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University
    • Senior Lecturer, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University
    • Lecturer, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University
  • Education

    • Ph.D., University of Cambridge
    • M.A., University of Melbourne
    • LL.M. University of Melbourne
    • B.A., University of Melbourne
    • LL.B., University of Melbourne
  • Languages

    • English