Dr Sam Bateman retired from the RAN as a Commodore and is now a Professorial Research Fellow at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong.

His naval service included two long postings in PNG and four ship commands ranging from a patrol boat to guided-missile destroyer, as well as several senior postings in the Department of Defence in Canberra.

Sam has written extensively on defence and maritime issues in Australia, the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean, and was awarded his PhD from the University of NSW for a dissertation on “The Strategic and Political Aspects of the Law of the Sea in East Asian Seas”. He recently co-chaired a working group of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Expert and Eminent Persons’ (EEPs) that conducted a study of lessons learnt and best practice with regard to preventing and managing incidents at sea in the Asia-Pacific region.