Hugh White

Professor Hugh White AO FASSA is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra and one of Australia’s leading strategic thinkers. His work focuses on Australian defence and foreign policy, Asia-Pacific security, and the changing dynamics of the global strategic order.

Professor White has held a number of senior positions in the Australian Government. He served as International Relations Adviser to Prime Minister Bob Hawke, Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence in the Department of Defence, and was the founding Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). Earlier in his career, he worked as an intelligence analyst with the Office of National Assessments, a journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald, and a senior adviser to Defence Minister Kim Beazley and Prime Minister Hawke.

He was the principal author of Australia’s 2000 Defence White Paper and has been a prominent contributor to debates on Australia’s strategic future. His major publications include Power Shift: Australia’s Future Between Washington and Beijing (2010), The China Choice: Why America Should Share Power (2012), Without America: Australia’s Future in the New Asia (2017), How to Defend Australia (2019), Sleepwalk to War: Australia’s Unthinking Alliance with America (2022) and Hard New World: Our Post-American Future (2025).

Professor White studied philosophy at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.