Anna Powles is an Associate Professor with the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University, in Aotearoa New Zealand. She specialises in geopolitical dynamics in the Pacific, Pacific security architecture, security cooperation in the Pacific, conflict and non-state actors in the Pacific, and New Zealand foreign and defence policy. Her research has appeared in journals including International Affairs, Asia Policy, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific and Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs; she has edited several books and authored multiple book chapters and commissioned policy research for the Lowy Institute for International Affairs, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, RAND, the National Bureau for Asian Research and RUSI. She has presented her research at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), Wilton Park, East West Center, Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, and the Pacific Islands Forum, has briefed multiple governments on their Pacific strategies, and leads several Track 1.5 and Track 2 dialogues on Pacific security. She is a non-resident fellow with the National Bureau for Asian Research and an expert associate of the National Security College at the Australian National University. She sits on the Research and Policy Advisory Group for the International Code of Conduct Association (ICoCA) on private military and security companies. She has previously held visiting fellowships at East West Center and the Australia War College and has been a member of several government advisory groups on defence and national security issues. In 2014 she founded Women In International Security New Zealand and was the NATO New Zealand civil society representative. Before joining academia, she worked in complex humanitarian emergencies and security sector reform with the United Nations, INGOs and the International Crisis Group. She is a regular op-ed contributor to publications including The Interpreter, East Asia Forum, The Conversation and The Strategist.