Henrietta McNeill commenced her PhD candidature with the Department of Pacific Affairs in 2020. Her research interests are criminal deportations to the Pacific Islands, security cooperation on transnational crime, and Pacific geopolitics. At present she is on the project team for an Australian Department of Defence Strategic Policy Grant looking at potential networked security architecture in the Pacific Islands region, and co-investigator on another analysing how tools of statecraft are used in the Pacific Islands region.