The late Bruce Hunt was a Research Fellow in the School of History, College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University. He had a BA (Hons) from Sydney University and a PhD from the University of New England. He was an officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) from 1974 to 2011. In addition to Port Moresby, he served overseas in Bonn, Harare and Tel Aviv and as High Commissioner to the Kingdom of Tonga. He was Director of the PNG Section in DFAT from 1990–1994 and from 2000–2003. He was a Fellow of the Australian Defence College, having attended the College in 1996, and was the senior civilian official in the Peace Monitoring Group in Bougainville on a three month rotation in 1999. In 2000 he was an adviser to the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group set up to examine the challenges faced by the Papua New Guinea Defence Force. He is the author of Australia’s Northern Shield? Papua New Guinea and the Defence of Australia since 1880 (Monash University Publishing, 2017).