Rebecca Strating

Bec Strating is the Director of the La Trobe Centre for Global Security and a Professor at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. She has extensive experience working in the academia-policy-public engagement nexus in the fields of international diplomacy and security. She was the Director of La Trobe Asia from 2020 to 2025.

Her research focuses primarily on Asian regional security, maritime disputes, and Australian foreign and defence policy. She is the author of ‘Girt by Sea: reimagining Australia’s Security’ with Professor Joanne Wallis (La Trobe University Press/Black Inc, 2024) and co-editor of 'Blue Security: Maritime Strategies in the Indo-Pacific' (Routledge, 2024) and 'Global Ocean Regions' (Palgrave, 2025).

Bec has written three sole-authored books, most recently ‘Defending the Maritime Rules-Based Order’ (2020), co-edited two special journal issues and one book (‘Australia on the World Stage’, 2022), and written multiple journal articles and book chapters, most recently in Q1-ranked journals European Journal of International Security, Contemporary Security Policy, Marine Policy, and Pacific Review.

Bec currently leads the DFAT-funded “Blue Security” network focused on maritime security issues in the Indo-Pacific. She received her PhD from Monash University in 2013.