Alan Dupont


Alan Anthony Dupont is an Australian international security expert, Defence and National Security Advocate for the Northern Territory and company director who has been the CEO of geopolitical risk consultancy the Cognoscenti Group since 2016. He is also contributing national security editor for The Australian newspaper, adjunct professor at the University of New South Wales, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, and the Lowy Institute in Sydney and a fellow at the Hinrich Foundation.
Dupont is a former army officer, intelligence analyst, freelance journalist, diplomat, academic and well-known commentator on defence and national security issues.

Education and early career

Dupont was born in London, England, and emigrated to Australia in 1957. He attended Aquinas College in Melbourne and the Royal Military College, Duntroon, graduating in 1971. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of NSW and a Master of Arts Degree and PhD in International Relations from the Australian National University.
He served with the Fourth Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, later working as a strategic analyst at the Joint Intelligence Organisation (Australia) in Canberra and, after resigning from the Army, as a free-lance journalist in South America. In 1980, he joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia) and served in the Australian Embassies in the Republic of Korea South Korea and Indonesia, the latter as Counsellor. During his time in Korea he studied at the US Foreign Service Institute, graduating in 1985.

Academic career

In 1995, Dupont took up an academic position at the Australian National University as Fellow, and later Senior Fellow, in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. In those capacities, he published widely and became a regular media commentator on Australian defence, foreign policy and East Asian security issues. He became a leading authority in the emerging field of transnational security studies, publishing a pathbreaking book by Cambridge University Press in 2001: "East Asia Imperilled: Transnational Security Challenges."
From 2003 to 2006, he was Senior Fellow and Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney where he gained international prominence for his work on traditional and new security challenges to the security of the Asia-Pacific region, particularly the strategic implications of climate change, food, water and energy insecurity, pandemics and unregulated population movements. He was an Industry Linkage Fellow with the Australian Research Council from 2004 to 2006.
In 2006, Dupont was appointed as the inaugural Michael Hintze Chair of International Security at the University of Sydney and the first Director of the Centre for International Security Studies. He was later appointed the start-up CEO of the United States Studies Centre, a million teaching and research collaboration between the University of Sydney, the American Australian Association and the Commonwealth and NSW governments. From 2012 to 2016, Dupont held joint professorial appointments in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Business School at the University of New South Wales, before leaving the university to establish the Cognoscenti Group.

Business and advisory career

Dupont has held several company directorships from 1995 to the present, including Director of the United States Studies Centre and Dupont Consulting.
He was an Australian representative on the ASEAN Regional Forum Register of Experts and Eminent Persons, and served as a Counsellor of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and on the boards of the Land Warfare Centre (Australia) ; CQS, a leading European asset manager ; the Sydney Globalist ; University of Sydney Board of Examiners ; the Australian Army Journal ; Outcomes Australia ; and the Northern Territory Strategic Defence Advisory Board.
He was special foreign policy advisor to Nobel Laureate and former President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta, and has advised several Australian defence and foreign ministers including the former Minister for Defence, David Johnston (Politician), as ministerial advisor. He led the Abbott Government's Defence White Paper team and was a member of the Foreign Affairs Council and the Defence and National Security Advisory Council.

Honours and appointments

Dupont received a commendation from East Timor's Foreign Minister, José Ramos-Horta, in 2001 and a commendation for his analysis and advisory work from Japan's Foreign Minister, Tarō Asō, in 2005.
Dupont was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to the international community through security analysis and strategic policy development".
On 9 November 2020 Dupont was appointed as an Advisory Councillor to the Asia Society Australia. The Society's main aim is to prepare Australian leaders and community for a deeper and sustained engagement with Asia.
On 16 November 2020 Dupont was appointed the new Northern Territory Defence and National Security Advocate. His main role will be to advocate for the Territory and make sure Northern Territory businesses are well positioned to capitalise on the billion defence equipment and capabilities spend over the next ten years.

Publications