Nov 18 | South China Sea: Addressing Maritime Security Challenges
Invitation to a Roundtable
South China Sea:
Addressing Maritime Security Challenges
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Venue:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
1616 Rhode Island Ave NE, Washington DC
SPEAKERS
Dr. Hunter S. Marston
Adjunct Fellow
Center for Strategic & International Studies
Brian Harding
Senior Advisor
US-Philippines Society
Indo-Pacific security and policy analyst Dr. Hunter Marston and Southeast Asia advisor Brian Harding recently participated in the “Manila Dialogue 2025 on the South China Sea.” Launched in 2024, the November 5-7 forum brought together security experts, academe, and defense officials to discuss deterrence, maritime security, and regional stability. Marston and Harding will provide a readout of key outcomes, including strategic insights and policy recommendations on aspects of the U.S.-Philippines defense alliance related to the South China Sea.
This program is co-organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the US-Philippines Society.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Dr. Hunter Marston holds a PhD in international relations from the Australian National University’s Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs. His research focuses on great power competition in Southeast Asia, Indo-Pacific security and alliances, and U.S. foreign policy. He is an adjunct research fellow at La Trobe Asia and an associate with 9DashLine. He was a 2021 non-resident WSD-Handa Fellow at the Pacific Forum in Honolulu and the recipient of a Robert J. Myers Fellows Fund from the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Previously, he was a senior research assistant for the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution and a researcher with the Center for Strategic and International Studies Southeast Asia Program. He completed an MA in Southeast Asia studies and a master’s in public administration from the University of Washington.
Brian Harding is a leading expert on Southeast Asia with nearly twenty years of experience shaping U.S. policy and engagement with the region at top institutions in Washington, DC.
From 2020 to 2025, Brian led a major expansion of U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) programming in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. At the heart of this effort was building USIP’s country program in the Philippines, which concentrated on practical, community-level initiatives in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to reduce violence and sustain peace.
Prior to USIP, Brian served as deputy director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and as director for Asia policy at the Center for American Progress, where his work included analysis and high-level dialogues on U.S.–Philippines relations. Earlier, from 2009 to 2013, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as country director for Asian and Pacific security affairs. In that role, he managed defense relations with key U.S. partners in Southeast Asia and Oceania and contributed to efforts to revitalize the U.S.–Philippines alliance, participating in early negotiations that led to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
Brian holds degrees from Middlebury College and The George Washington University, studied at universities in Indonesia and Japan, and was a Fulbright research fellow in Indonesia. He concurrently serves as a senior fellow (non-resident) at Sasakawa USA and a research fellow at the Southeast Asia Peace Institute.
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