Dr Ron Huisken

Although trained as an economist at the University of Western Australia and the Royal Stockholm University, and lecturing in economics at the University of Malaya in 1970-72, Dr Huisken slipped into the field of strategic studies and arms control through six years with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (1968-70 and 1972-76).

He then joined the ANU Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, first as a Visiting Fellow and then as a PhD candidate preparing a thesis on the origins of the strategic cruise missile. He was also a consultant to and later a staff member of the United Nations Centre for Disarmament Affairs over the period 1977-1981.

Dr Huisken joined the Australian Public Service in 1981, initially as an intelligence analyst before moving into policy areas with Prime Minister and Cabinet, Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence. In 1990-94, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Australian embassy in Bonn, Germany. He left the APS in 2001 to rejoin the ANU Strategic and Defence Studies Centre where he focused on US security policies, non-proliferation and security arrangements in East Asia until his retirement in 2012. His primary current interest is the security of the Indo-Pacific.