Dr Henry Ivarature from Papua New Guinea has been appointed Deputy Director of the Australia Pacific Security College at The Australian National University. He brings over 30 years of experience from working in the Pacific to the APSC and will lead our strategic engagement. He has extensive program management experience at country, regional, and international levels. He has been involved in large-scale socio-economic and infrastructure development programs with the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program in PNG’s Western Province, good governance initiatives under the Pacific Plan with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Fiji, and a DFAT-funded program on public sector leadership and institutional strengthening with the Pacific Institute of Leadership and Governance (PILAG). At PILAG, he also facilitated the training of over 600 public servants in project and financial management in eleven districts in PNG. Working with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance’s AsiaPacific Office in Canberra, Henry explored the nexus between democracy and development. Henry also served in the Office of the Chief Secretary to Government in the PNG Department of Prime Minister & NEC during the period of the reformist Prime Minister the late Sir Mekere Morauta. He helped establish a central agencies coordinating committee to strengthen cabinet decision-making. He later coordinated PNG’S representation to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Dr Ivarature has also tutored at the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific Centre in Tonga, lectured at Tonga’s ‘Atenisi Institute and was a Senior Research Fellow at Papua New Guinea’s think-tank, the National Research Institute. He has a keen interest in politics and draws on his regional experience to discuss Pacific regionalism, security, and geopolitics in the Pacific which he also shares in blogs and at lectures for the ANU’s Department of Pacific Affairs, the Australian War College, and the National Security College. He studied Tongan’s knowledge, attitudes, and practices on reproductive health to graduate with a PhD in sociology in 1994 from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His current research interests include political instability in Melanesia and Pacific regionalism. His latest publication is titled ‘The hidden dimension to political instability: Insights from ministerial durations in Papua New Guinea from 1972-2017”, which was published in Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies (2022). Dr Ivarature has been a Pacific Fellow at the APSC since March 2020.