Richard Tanter | Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability

Richard Tanter is Senior Research Associate, Nautilus Institute, and Honorary Professor in the School of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

Richard has worked on peace, security and environment issues in East and Southeast Asia as analyst, policy advocate and activist since the 1970s. His research has focussed on militarisation, intelligence, and nuclear issues in Indonesia, Korea, Japan, and Australia.

In East Asia Richard has written on questions of Japanese security policy, its intersection with US policy and relations with China, and, with Desmond Ball, on Japanese electronic intelligence capabilities.

Two major projects dealing with the Australia – United States alliance are ongoing:

The Pine Gap Project (with Desmond Ball and Bill Robinson) – a series of nine historical and forensic studies on the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap in Central Australia; and
The Nuclear-capable B-52H Stratofortress bombers project (with Vince Scappatura) – Nuclear-capable B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers: a visual guide to identification, 5 August 2024 (pp. 241); and B-52 strategic bombers in Australia, 1979 – 1991 and the nuclear heterodoxy of Malcolm Fraser, Nautilus Institute Special Report, 4 August 2025 (pp. 162).

Richard was a Fulbright Scholar at the New School for Social Research in 1975-77, and his PhD dissertation for Monash University in 1992 was on Intelligence Agencies and Third World Militarization: A Case Study of Indonesia.

Richard is a former president of the Australian board of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2017.

From 1989-2003 Richard was Professor of International Relations in the School of Environmental and Social Studies at Kyoto Seika University in Japan. From 2004 – 2010 he was Professor of International Relations in the Research and Innovation Portfolio, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and Director of the Nautilus Institute in Australia. After returning from Japan in 2003, he was Senior Curriculum Consultant to Deakin University for its Security Studies graduate program at the Australian Defence College’s Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies. His PhD dissertation for Monash University in 1992 was on Intelligence Agencies and Third World Militarization: A Case Study of Indonesia.

Richard is a frequent commentator on international affairs in newspapers, radio and television, and has been quoted in the New York Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Asahi Shimbun, Tempo, Jakarta Post, ABC, BBC, VOA, Al Jazeera, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Straits Times, and Pravda.

Richard’s publications are available here and talks here.

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