Professor Rory Medcalf is Head of the National Security College at the Australian National University. His has three decades of experience across diplomacy, intelligence analysis, think tanks, academia and journalism, including as founding director of the international security program at the Lowy Institute.

In government, Professor Medcalf worked as a senior strategic analyst with the Office of National Assessments, Canberra’s peak intelligence agency. He was an Australian diplomat, with experience in India, Japan and Papua New Guinea, and continues to lead informal strategic dialogues with India and several other Indo-Pacific powers. He has contributed to three landmark international reports on nuclear arms control and was on the independent expert panel for the Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper. He has been recognised as a thought leader internationally for his work on the Indo-Pacific strategic concept, as articulated in his acclaimed 2020 book Contest for the Indo-Pacific.

Professor Medcalf is a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum Register of Experts and Eminent Persons and the board of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.