Dr Richard Brabin-Smith AO is an Honorary Professor at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of the Australian National University, where he follows his interests in matters relating to Australian and regional security. Before this, he had spent thirty years in the Department of Defence, with some twenty of these years in a wide range of senior policy and corporate management positions. These included Deputy Secretary for Strategic Policy, Chief Defence Scientist, First Assistant Secretary for International Policy, First Assistant Secretary for Strategic Policy and Co-ordination, and First Assistant Secretary for Force Development and Analysis.

Some particular highlights of his Defence career were a year's secondment to Program Analysis and Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon in the mid-1980s, attachment to the Review of Defence Capability conducted by Paul Dibb in the late 1980s, and membership of the Senior Review Panel of the Defence Efficiency Review (the McIntosh Review) in the late 1990s.

Dr Brabin-Smith was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in June 2000 for his achievements as Chief Defence Scientist.