Our Team
Natalie Sambhi, Founder and Executive Director
Through her research and publications, Dr Natalie Sambhi is committed to helping people gain a more nuanced understanding of Indonesian civil-military relations, Indonesian defence policy and Southeast Asian security.
Natalie is Founder and Executive Director of Verve Research, an independent think tank focussed on the relationship between militaries and societies in Southeast Asia. Since 2020, she has been a Non-Resident Fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program, where she publishes on Indonesian foreign and defence policy as well as Southeast Asian affairs.
Natalie has a PhD from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian National University on the Indonesian military’s collective memory of its experiences in East Timor (1975–1999).
Natalie has previously been a Research Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, and an Analyst and Managing Editor of ASPI's blog, The Strategist at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). She has also worked at the Department of Defence and University of Canberra. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and a Master of Arts (International Relations) and Master of Diplomacy from the Australian National University.
In May 2014 and in January 2016, Natalie was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in Washington, DC where she researched Indonesian civil–military relations. Natalie has previously been involved with the Australian Institute of International Affairs ACT, having served on council; the US-based Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) as a host of the podcast series Sea Control: Asia Pacific; and Bloggingheads.tv as a host for their international relations segment Foreign Entanglements. Her writing has appeared in Security Challenges journal, War On The Rocks, The Diplomat, The Interpreter and The National Interest. Natalie blogs at www.securityscholar.org. Follow her on X (Twitter) @securityscholar.
Henrik Paulsson, Strategic Fellow
Henrik Paulsson is a founding member and Strategic Fellow at Verve Research. Since 2019 he is a PhD scholar at the Swedish Defence University, where he researches military innovation, strategy, and tactics. He also teaches tactical theory at the Department of Military Studies.
From 2016 to 2018, Henrik worked at the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as a researcher. There he researched Southeast Asian military developments, military procurement, unmanned systems, and the future of war. He also taught military strategy, defence policy, and air power theory for the Singapore Armed Forces. Henrik holds a Bachelor of Science in Peace and Conflict Studies from Umeå University, and a Master of Science in Strategic Studies from the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Follow him on X (Twitter) @henrikrpaulsson.
Ava Patricia Avila, Strategic Fellow
Dr Ava Patricia Avila is a Strategic Fellow at Verve Research, specialising in gender, political violence, civil-military relations, preventing/countering violent terrorism, peace and development in the Philippines. Both a researcher and practitioner, her long-standing goal is to work towards bridging research, policymaking, and grassroots activism to effectively implement policies.
Ava’s professional experience encompasses working for both government and non-government organizations in the Philippines, Singapore, and Washington DC. From 2007 to 2011, she worked at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies as Associate Research Fellow. Prior to that, she worked with the Mindanao Commission on Women, where she helped develop training materials on three areas of programming: politics and governance, peace and multiculturalism, and poverty reduction.
In 2018, she provided strategic guidance to Equal Access International as they were selected to implement a U.S. Department of State Global Engagement Center project focused on enhancing indigenous capacities to develop CVE alternative messaging strategies by and for vulnerable youth in Mindanao. Following this role, she provided research support to RAND Corporation’s evaluation of the said CVE project.
Ava holds a PhD in Defense and Security from Cranfield University. Her writing can be found in Asia Pacific Journal of Education, The Diplomat, Rappler and Analyzing War.
Follow her on X (Twitter) @ava_patricia.
Munira Mustaffa, Fellow
Munira Mustaffa is a Fellow at Verve Research. She has been working in the security industry in the private, government and military sectors since 2014. She has assisted on the Against Violent Extremism (AVE) project for Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and served as a subject matter expert for The Stabilisation Network. She has worked professionally as a counterterrorism analyst at both government and military-level.
Munira earned her MSc in Countering Organised Crime and Terrorism from University College of London. Her interests include counterterrorism, intelligence, and disinformation and propaganda in the cyberspace.
Her research has been published through NATO Stratcom Centre of Excellence, and she has contributed pieces to The ISIS Blog and Strife.
Follow her on X (Twitter) @MuniraMustaffa.
Bich Tran, Senior Fellow
Dr Bich (Bic) Tran is a Senior Fellow at Verve Research, specialising in Vietnam’s security and foreign policy. Her research interests include Vietnam’s grand strategy, Southeast Asian states' relations with major powers, and issues at the intersection between geopolitics and technology.
Bich is a postdoctoral fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a fellow at the 2024 International Strategy Forum. Previously, she was a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS-Asia), and East West Center in Washington among others.
Bich obtained her PhD in Political Science from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Her thesis, entitled “Vietnam’s Grand Strategic Adjustment of Cooperation and Struggle”, explains the reasons behind Vietnam’s grand strategy and implementation using the country’s relations with China and the United States as case studies.
She is the author of “Vietnam’s Strategic Adjustments and US Policy” (Survival 64, no. 6, 77–90). A full list of her publications is available on Google Scholar.
Follow her on X (Twitter) @BicTranVn.
