Peter Dean to run the new UWA defence and security program

Defence scholar Peter Dean will run the University of Western Australia’s first defence and security program.

Peter Dean (centre) with Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and Western Australian governor Kim Beazley.

Defence scholar Peter Dean will run the University of Western Australia’s first defence and security program with a focus on public policy.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has announced a $1.3 million grant to the University of Western Australia over four years to establish the program. The university will collaborate with the McGowan Labor government, industry, academia and the Defence Department to research and analyse national security issues in what Professor Dean describes as a rapidly changing strategic environment.

Professor Dean was pro vice-chancellor (education) at the UWA. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre.

“The University of Western Australia’s new defence and security program is leveraging local expertise on issues such as defence industry, maritime security and the Indian Ocean,” Senator Reynolds said.

“I congratulate Professor Peter Dean on his selection as the inaugural head of the program. He will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the role, as one of Australia’s premier experts on Indo-Pacific security.”

Professor Dean’s background in military and defence studies includes a term as a Fulbright Fellow and Endeavour Research Scholar in Australia-United States Alliance Studies and as a nonresident fellow with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

Professor Dean told The Australian he felt the new program was particularly timely partly because the region was changing so quickly.

“That is only making the issues we are looking at even more pressing,” he said.

Before joining UWA, Professor Dean was a scholar at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University where he held numerous research, teaching and leadership positions. He also taught strategy, military operations and Australian defence policy at the Australian Command and Staff College. Previously he spent fourteen years as a member of the Australian Army (Reserve) with postings to infantry, commando and training units.

Defence funding for the program is from the Strategic Policy Grants Program, designed to support independent research to inform its strategic policy advice to Government and to enhance the public debate on national security issues.

Defence is funding 24 activities through the 2020 round of the program, representing around $6.2 million in funding through the 2022-23 financial year.