Xylee C. Paculba is currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science, University of the Philippines, Diliman. She is a retired Navy Captain with more than two decades of military service in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. She graduated from the Philippine Military Academy and completed her Master in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management and Master of Strategic Studies from the Australian National University. She is also an independent consultant to national and international organizations working in the areas of international and maritime security, maritime domain awareness, and, gender and development.