Robert Ayson

Position

Director

Profile

Robert Ayson is Professor of Strategic Studies and directs the Centre for Strategic Studies: New Zealand at Victoria University. He has also taught at the Australian National University, Massey University and the University of Waikato, and worked in Wellington with the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee and the External (now National) Assessments Bureau. Professor Ayson completed his PhD in War Studies at King’s College London as a Commonwealth Scholar and his MA at the ANU as a Freyberg Scholar. He has published on Asia-Pacific security, New Zealand and Australian defence policies, nuclear proliferation, and the relationship between strategic studies and international relations. Having authored a book on the American strategist Thomas Schelling, Professor Ayson is currently writing on the thinking of Hedley Bull. He leads a project on Asian arms control for a MacArthur Foundation research initiative, and is an Honorary Professor with the New Zealand Defence Force Command and Staff College.

Contact

robert.ayson@vuw.ac.nz
Phone: (04) 463 6445 or 021 418 246

Commentary to the media

G8 and Afghanistan, TV3 - 21 May 2012.

China drives military relations - expert says, TVNZ One News - 4 May 2012.

Revised MFAT plan, and quoted in a print article, Newstalk ZB - 3 May 2012.

US-NZ exercise, TIME blog - 26 April 2012.

Nuclear terrorism unlikely, TV3 News- 28 March 2012.

MFAT changes, Morning Report, Radio NZ - 24 February 2012.

Taliban confident of retaking Afghanistan, Checkpoint, Radio New Zealand - 2 February 2012

Closer Australian-New Zealand defence links, Morning Report, Radio NZ - 30 January 2012.

West displays Gulf military power to defiant Iran, Firstline, 3 News - 25 January 2012.

Tensions rise between Iran and the EU, One News - 24 January 2012.

Papers and presentations

Loosening the US-China Straitjacket article in PacNet, No.67A - 6 December 2011.

Ruling the Pacific Waves Pod cast from Radio New Zealand’s, Sunday Morning Programme - 4 December 2011.

Interests, Values, and New Zealand's Engagement with Asia Inaugural Lecture - 19 July 2011.

New Zealand and Australian Security Perceptions of China Presentation to a public symposium on New Zealand, Australia and China's Rise, Wellingtion - 7 April 2011.

Publications

Robert Ayson (2011) ‘Force and Statecraft: Strategic Objectives and Relationships in New Zealand’s 2010 Defence White Paper’, Security Challenges, 7:1 (Autumn 2011), pp. 11-29.

Robert Ayson [with David Capie] (2011) ‘Evolution, Not Revolution: The US-NZ Security Partnership’, Asia Pacific Bulletin 104, Washington DC: East-West Center, 31 March 2011.  

Robert Ayson (2011) 'An Australiasian school of strategic studies? Hedley Bull and changing international and regional systems', Global Change, Peace & Security, Vol. 23, No. 1, February 2011, 47-57.

Robert Ayson (2010) ‘After a Terrorist Nuclear Attack: Envisaging Catalytic Effects’, Journal of Conflict and Terrorism, 33:7.

Robert Ayson (2010) ‘Australia’s defense policy: medium power, even bigger ambitions?’, Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, 22:2.

Robert Ayson (2009) ‘China Central? Australia’s Asia Strategy’, The International Spectator, 44:2.

Robert Ayson (2008) ‘Strategic Studies' in Chris Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, Oxford University Press.

Robert Ayson (2007) 'The "Arc of Instability" and Australia's Strategic Policy', Australian Journal of International Affairs, 61:2.

Robert Ayson (2006) Strategy and Security in the Asia-Pacific, Allen and Unwin. [Co-editor with Desmond Ball].

Robert Ayson (2005) 'Regional Stability in the Asia-Pacific: Towards a Conceptual Understanding', Asian Security 1:2.

Robert Ayson (2004) Thomas Schelling and the Nuclear Age: Strategy as Social Science, Frank Cass.