Desmond Ball, BEc (Hons), PhD
Professor, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies
Research interests
Key publications
- Politics and Force Levels: The Strategic Missile Program of the Kennedy Administration, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1980.
- A Suitable Piece of Real Estate: American Installations in Australia, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1980.
- Can Nuclear War be Controlled?, Adelphi Paper No. 169, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, Autumn 1981.
- Targeting for Strategic Deterrence, Adelphi Paper No. 185, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, Summer 1983.
- (ed. with Jeffrey Richelson) Strategic Nuclear Targeting, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1986.
- A Base for Debate: The US Satellite Station at Nurrungar, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, London and Boston, 1987.
- Pine Gap: Australia and the US Geostationary Signals Intelligence Satellite Program, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1988.
- (ed. with Helen Wilson) Strange Neighbours: The Indonesia-Australia Relationship, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1991.
- (ed.) Aborigines in the Defence of Australia, Australian National University Press, Sydney, 1991.
- Signals Intelligence in the Post-Cold War Era: Developments in the Asia-Pacific Region, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1993.
- (with Pauline Kerr) Presumptive Engagement: Australia's Asia-Pacific Security Policy in the 1990s, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1996.
- (ed.) The Transformation of Security in the Asia/Pacific Region, Frank Cass & Co, London, 1996.
- Burma's Military Secrets: Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) from the Second World War to Civil War and Cyber Warfare, White Lotus Press, Bangkok, 1998.
- (with David Horner) Breaking the Codes: The KGB's Network in Australia, 1944-1950, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1998.
- (with Hamish McDonald) Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2000.
- The Boys in Black: The Thahan Phran (Rangers), Thailand's Para-military Border Guards (White Lotus, Bangkok, 2004).
- The Probabilities of On the Beach: Assessing 'Armageddon Scenarios' in the 21st Century, Working Paper No. 401, SDSC, May 2006.
Career highlights
Head of the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre (1984-91); personal chair in RSPAS (1987); FASSA (1986); member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) (1995-2001); Co-chairman of the Steering Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) (2000-2002).
