Des Ball

Desmond John Ball AO (20 May 1947 – 12 October 2016) was an Australian academic and expert on defence and security.

Des Ball attended the Australian National University in 1965, shifting from being a promising student in economics to security studies.

He completed a PhD supervised by Hedley Bull, on the global nuclear strategies of the United States and the Soviet Union.

From 1966 he was a "person of interest" for ASIO,[3] particularly following his inquiries into the Pine Gap secret tracking facility and Nurrungar 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 that aspects of defence co-operation with the US infringed Australian national interests by remaining entirely secret.