Hoover Institution (Stanford, California) — The Honorable Marise Payne, Australia’s minister of foreign affairs from 2018 to 2022 and a highly accomplished national security and foreign policy practitioner, has joined the Hoover Institution as a distinguished visiting fellow.
Marise Payne was first elected to the Australian Senate in 1997 and served until 2023, making her the longest-serving female senator in Australia’s history. She was named minister for defense, the first woman ever to hold that post, in 2015, during the Coalition government. She also served as minister for women from 2019 to 2022, concurrent with her post as minister of foreign affairs.
She served in the National Security Committee of the Australian Cabinet for seven years, amid one of the most challenging and complex strategic environments in decades. As foreign minister, she was heavily involved in the establishment of the AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) partnership.
Payne also helped grow the Quad partnership, participating in the first in-person meeting of the Quad foreign ministers in 2019. Her focus included collaborating with her US, Japanese, and Indian counterparts on health security, infrastructure, climate, critical technologies, and cybersecurity.
Her time as defense minister included delivery of the 2016 White Paper and Defense Industry Policy Statement, which paved the way for a $200 billion rearmament of the Australian Defence Force.
Her career focus is on working closely with allies and partners and developing key relationships to deliver greater strategic strength and resilience.
"Marise Payne is a seasoned diplomat and a renowned expert on the security and economic dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region, said Condoleezza Rice, director of the Hoover Institution and 66th US Secretary of State. "She brings to the Hoover fellowship a deep knowledge of the issues and regional intricacies with an appreciation and commitment toward policies that promote freedom, openness and stability in this crucial area of the geopolitical landscape. We are delighted to welcome her to Hoover.”
Marise Payne was a participant in Hoover’s 2024 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue. This initiative brings together experts on the Indo-Pacific region to discuss matters of maritime security, technology cooperation, and supply-chain resiliency.
During her tenure as minister of foreign affairs, Payne championed mutually beneficial partnerships with many of Australia’s neighbors.
She forged agreements to build seabed communications infrastructure, including the Coral Sea Cable, the East Micronesia Cable and the Palau Spur, the latter two under the Trilateral Infrastructure Partnership with Japan and the United States. Under her leadership, she helped establish the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and various other security, economics, and trade agreements.
She also provided leadership in developing the Pacific Maritime Security Program, which gave Australia’s neighbors more capable patrol boats, enhanced aerial surveillance, and better information sharing and capacity building.
Payne serves on the board of the Observer Research Foundation America and is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow and professor of practice in international relations and public policy at Australia’s Western Sydney University.
