Research
Research themes and projects
Anthea’s work currently includes these main research projects, which bring together scholars and practitioners from Australia and across the world.
Governing in Complexity
Today’s social, political, environmental and technological challenges are increasingly interconnected. Climate change, pandemics, rising inequality, new forms of insecurity and growing great power competition dominate our daily news feeds. Domains such as economics, security and the environment collide in policy making. Established power structures are being contested and re-shaped. Drawing on insights from complexity theory, Anthea and Associate Professor Miranda Forsyth lead an interdisciplinary group exploring approaches for better understanding and responding to various interdependent social, political, economic and ecological challenges of the 21st century.
Geoeconomics
The emerging geoeconomic world order is characterized by an increased convergence of economics, security and technology concerns. Accelerated by intensifying US-China rivalry, geoeconomic competition is also evolving into a struggle for technological leadership, creating the growing prospect of bifurcated technology ecosystems. Anthea leads an interdisciplinary research program evaluating approaches to risk, rewards and resilience in this geoeconomic age. This project involves developing integrated policymaking responses, drawing on insights from economics, political science, international law, international relations, security studies, and cyber policies.
Investment Treaty System
In 2017, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law mandated a working group to consider reforms to investor-state dispute settlement. From this initial mandate, the negotiators developed a new work plan in 2021 to develop a variety of proposed reforms that member states can accept on an opt-in basis. Anthea and political scientist Dr. Taylor St John have published real-time blog commentary on the process from its inception, along with a series of articles. Anthea has also written a series of articles about how to conceptualize and reframe the investment treaty system.
International Law
Anthea has written on a broad range of international law topics, from questions about the sources of international law to topics on particular areas of international law, including human rights, jurisdiction and international humanitarian law. She has written extensively on the idea of comparative international law and served as a Reporter for the Restatement Fourth on the Foreign Relations Law of the United States.