Professor Peter J. Dean PhD SFHEA is the Director, Foreign Policy and Defence at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

Previously Professor Dean was the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) first Chair of Defence Studies and the inaugural director of the UWA Defence and Security Institute. He served as a Pro Vice-Chancellor at UWA, where he received a Vice Chancellor’s Commendation for Outstanding Leadership and held a number of senior roles at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific and Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

An international award-winning author he has authored numerous books, policy papers and articles on the US-Australian alliance, Australian defence policy, military operations and regional security. 

A Fulbright Fellow and Endeavour Research Scholar Professor Dean was Co-Lead of the 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) Secretariat where he served as senior advisor and principal author for the Independent Leads, His Excellency Professor the Hon. Stephen Smith and Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK AC AFC (Retd).