2016 marks the 50th anniversary of SDSC’s founding and the 25th anniversary of the Cold War’s ending. To mark its 50th anniversary, and drawing inspiration from the 1980 event (‘New Directions in Strategic Thinking’), SDSC hosted this conference at ANU entitled ‘New Directions in Strategic Thinking 2.0’.

As in 1980, the conference in 2016 considers major trends which have taken place in strategic thinking since the ending of the Cold War, and where these developments might lead over the coming decade.

Chair

Professor Joan Beaumont

Professor, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, The Australian National University

Professor Beaumont is an internationally recognised historian of Australia in the two world wars, the history of prisoners of war and the memory and heritage of war. Her publications include Broken Nation: Australians & the Great War (2013), which was joint winner of the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award (Australian History), and winner of the 2014 NSW Premier’s Prize (Australian History), the 2014 Queensland Literary Award for History, and the Australian Society of Authors’ 2015 Asher Award. Her recent publications include ‘The Longest Silence: Australian Prisoners of the Japanese’ in Peter Dean (ed.) Australia 1944-45: Victory in the Pacific (2016), and Commemoration in Australia: A Memory Orgy? in the Australian Journal of Political Science, 50/3, 2015. Professor Beaumont is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Speakers

Emeritus Professor Paul Dibb

Emeritus Professor, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, The Australian National University

Emeritus Professor Dibb was Head of SDSC from 1991 to 2003. His previous positions include Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defence, Director of the Defence Intelligence Organisation, and Head of the National Assessments Staff (National Intelligence Committee). As Deputy Secretary, he chaired the Force Structure Committee with the Vice Chief of the Defence Force as his deputy and the Service Chiefs as the other senior committee members. Emeritus Professor Dibb is the author of five books and four reports to government, as well as more than 150 academic articles and monographs about the security of the Asia-Pacific region, the US alliance, and Australia’s defence policy. He wrote the 1986 Review of Australia’s Defence Capabilities (the Dibb Report) and was the primary author of the 1987 Defence White Paper. His book The Soviet Union: the Incomplete Superpower was published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London in 1986, then reprinted in 1987 and again in 1988. On behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Emeritus Professor Dibb has represented Australia at ten meetings of the ASEAN Regional Forum’s Expert and Eminent Persons group, most recently in Singapore in March 2016. He was a member of the Foreign Minister’s policy advisory panel for the nine years of its existence until 2007. His areas of expertise include international security concepts, Asia-Pacific regional security issues, and Australian defence policy and force structure. He was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1989.

Dr Euan Graham

Director, International Security Program, Lowy Institute for International Policy

Dr Graham has been a close observer of East Asian security affairs for more than 20 years in academia, the private sector, and for the British Government. Dr Graham came to the Lowy Institute from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore where he was a Senior Fellow specialising in maritime security. Prior to this he was a research analyst in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and served as Chargé d’Affaires at the British Embassy in Pyongyang. Dr Graham’s research interests include maritime disputes in the East and South China Seas, nuclear proliferation, the US rebalance to Asia and defence diplomacy. His book Japan’s Sea Lane Security 1940-2004: A Matter of Life and Death? (Routledge) was the first comprehensive English-language analysis on this subject. Dr Graham obtained his PhD from SDSC at ANU where he was supervised by Professor Desmond Ball.

Dr Tim Huxley

Executive Director, The International Institute for Strategic Studies–Asia

Dr Huxley was educated at the University of Oxford, the University of Wales Aberystwyth (MScEcon Strategic Studies), and The Australian National University (PhD International Relations). He has worked for many years in the overlap between strategic studies and Asian area studies, his research focusing particularly on Southeast Asian states’ security and defence policies. He has held research and teaching posts at universities in the UK and Australia, and was a Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. Before joining the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), he was Reader in Southeast Asian Politics at the University of Hull. His major publications include Defending the Lion City. The Armed Forces of Singapore (Allen & Unwin, 2000) and Disintegrating Indonesia? Implications for Regional Security (Adelphi Paper 349, July 2002). Since joining IISS in 2003, Dr Huxley has written extensively on security-related developments in Southeast Asia and Australasia for Strategic Survey, The Military Balance, Survival and other Institute publications. He assumed the post of Executive Director, IISS–Asia in 2007. He plays a key role in organising the annual IISS Shangri-La Dialogue and travels extensively in the region.