Julia G. Bentley
Julia G. Bentley is currently a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, an External Research Associate of the York Centre for Asian Research, a Non-Resident Fellow at National Taiwan University`s Centre for China Studies, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia. Julia is also a Distinguished Fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
She served in the Canadian foreign service with distinction for 32 years, occupying several senior executive positions at Global Affairs Canada related to Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.
Julia has also represented Canada as a diplomat abroad. She served as Canada’s High Commissioner in Malaysia (2017-2020) and previously at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing (twice), the Canadian High Commission in Delhi, and the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei.
Combined with other roles including as a teacher, development consultant, and head of an international organization, she spent 22 years working in Asia.
In 2022, Julia was on secondment for a year at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
She was awarded a policy practitioner fellowship at the University of British Columbia’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs for a semester in spring 2023.
She was awarded a Taiwan Fellowship to conduct research for three months in spring 2025,, based at National Taiwan University's Centre for China Research.
She holds degrees in East Asian Studies from Princeton University and the University of Toronto and was a Canada-China Scholar in modern history at Nanjing University.
Select publications by Julia G. Bentley
Reimagining China Studies: Taiwan as a Platform for Engaging with the Sinosphere (November 2025)
Intensifying Canada-ASEAN Economic Ties Amid Tariff Turbulence (November 2025)
Deepening Canada-ASEAN Security Cooperation (May 2025)
Building Long-term Relationships to Foster Canada-ASEAN Economic Security and Resilience (October 2024)
Julia Bentley: Deepening Canada’s Academic and Research Collaboration with the Indo-Pacific (May 2024)
Rethinking Canada’s engagement in Southeast Asia: lessons from the Canada-ASEAN Centre (Canadian Foreign Policy Journal: Vol 0, No 0; July 2023)
All Politics is Local: Insights from Malaysia on the Belt and Road Initiative (October 2022)
