Desmond John Ball (20 May 1947 – 12 October 2016) was an Australian academic and expert on defence and security. He was credited with successfully advising the US against nuclear escalation in the 1970s.
Background
Des Ball attended the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
in 1965, shifting from being a promising student in economics to security studies. He completed a PhD supervised by
Hedley Bull
Hedley Norman Bull (10 June 1932 – 18 May 1985) was Professor of International Relations at the Australian National University, the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford until his death from cancer in 1985. He was Montague ...
, on the global nuclear strategies of the United States and the Soviet Union. He was based for several months in the USA at the Institute of War and Peace. He joined ANU as a lecturer in 1974, becoming head of the
Strategic and Defence Studies Centre
The Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC) is a university-based institute that is situated in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. It is Australia's oldest-established centre for the study of ...
in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific from 1984 to 1991, and Special Professor in the centre in 1987.
Ball was an opponent of the draft for the Vietnam War in Australia (although not the war itself, at the time), and was arrested for protesting against it. He won an appeal in the Supreme Court against his conviction. From 1966 he was a "person of interest" for
ASIO
''Asio'' is a genus of typical owls, or true owls, in the family Strigidae. This group has representatives over most of the planet, and the short-eared owl is one of the most widespread of all bird species, breeding in Europe, Asia, North and S ...
,
particularly following his inquiries into the
Pine Gap
Pine Gap is a satellite surveillance base and Australian Earth station approximately south-west of the town of Alice Springs, Northern Territory in the center of Australia. It is jointly operated by Australia and the United States, and since ...
secret tracking facility and
Nurrungar
Joint Defence Facility Nurrungar (JDFN), located on the edge of Island Lagoon, approximately 15 km south of Woomera, South Australia, was an Earth station in Australia operated jointly by the Australian Department of Defence and the United ...
in Australia from 1969, and was taken to court after the publication of ''A Suitable Piece of Real Estate'' in 1980. He held ASIO in disdain, for its inability to recognise aspects of defence co-operation with the US infringed Australian national interests by remaining entirely secret.
Ball was diagnosed with incurable cancer and died on 12 October 2016 at the age of 69.
Despite his illness, he continued writing and working until his death.
Contributions
Ball was a political realist, and a believer in liberal institutions and solid defence strategies. He used an inductive, investigative approach to security studies.
During the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, Ball was invited to critique US nuclear defence plans—his analysis persuading the US that its plan to destroy selected Soviet targets in a limited strike would not work in practice and would lead to all-out nuclear escalation. His analysis has been acknowledged by President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
.
Ball worked on Australia's signal intelligence and exposed Australia's secret history of cracking diplomatic cables. In 1998 with
David Horner
David Murray Horner, (born 12 March 1948) is an Australian military historian and academic.
Early life and military career
Horner was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 12 March 1948. He was raised in a military household—his father, Mur ...
he confirmed wartime Soviet spying in Australia revealed by the
Petrov Affair
The Petrov Affair was a Cold War spy incident in Australia, concerning the defection of Vladimir Petrov, a KGB officer, from the Soviet embassy in Canberra in 1954. The defection led to a Royal Commission and the resulting controversy contribu ...
, carried out by staff in Evatt's Foreign Affairs Department.
He studied, and was active in, some of Southeast Asia's "shadow wars". He was a supporter of
Karen
Karen may refer to:
* Karen (name), a given name and surname
* Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors
People
* Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand
** Karen languages or Karenic l ...
independence, having discovered the extent of Burmese Army human rights abuses, and advised the
Karen National Liberation Army
The Karen National Liberation Army ( ksw, ကညီဒီကလုာ် တၢ်ထူၣ်ဖျဲး သုးမုၢ်ဒိၣ်, my, ကရင်အမျိုးသား လွတ်မြောက်ရေး တပ်မတ ...
along the Thai/Myanmar border on successful guerrilla warfare from the early-2000s.
He made over 85 research trips to the region.
He worked with the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, and believed the biggest threat in the early 21st century would be the potential for conflict escalation in north-east Asia.
Awards
![Des Ball memorial tree at the ANU February 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Des_Ball_memorial_tree_at_the_ANU_February_2017.jpg)
*
Peter Baume
Peter Erne Baume, AC (born 30 January 1935) is a retired Australian doctor and politician. He was a Senator for New South Wales from 1974 to 1991, representing the Liberal Party. He served as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (1980–1982) a ...
Award, ANU (2013)
* Officer of the Order of Australia (2014)
It's an Honour: AO
Retrieved 12 March 2015
* Festschrift volume, Brendan Taylor, Nicholas Farrelly and Sheryn Lee (eds.) 2012. ''Insurgent Intellectual: Essays in Honour of Professor Desmond Ball''. Institute of South East Asian Studies. Including a contribution by ''Jimmy Carter''.
* Ball Strategic Endowment ($AU 1.5m) established in 2013 for ANU research scholarship into Australian and Asian strategic studies and defence.
*Co-chairman of the Steering Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific The Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) is a "non-governmental (second track) process for dialogue on security issues in Asia Pacific." There are currently twenty one member committees of CSCAP (from Australia, Cambodia, Ca ...
(CSCAP) (2000–2002).
*Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) is an independent, non-governmental organisation devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the social sciences. It has its origins in the Social Science Research Council of Austr ...
(1986).
See also
*Mass surveillance in Australia
Mass surveillance in Australia takes place in several network media, including telephone, internet, and other communications networks, financial systems, vehicle and transit networks, international travel, utilities, and government schemes and s ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Des
1947 births
2016 deaths
Australian National University alumni
Australian National University faculty
Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
Officers of the Order of Australia
Historians of espionage