Dr Ross Babbage (1949) is the Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Forum Pty Ltd and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) in Washington DC. Dr Babbage is also Managing Director of Strategy International, a national security consulting and educational services company. Dr Babbage formerly held the position as Head of Strategic Analysis in the Office of National Assessments and Assistant Secretary for ANZUS and then Force Development in the Department of Defence. He has also been an advisor to various government ministers and departments
Babbage was educated at Barker College in Sydney. He subsequently completed bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from the University of Sydney and a PhD in International Relations from the Australian National University.
In 2003 to 2004 he served as Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University.
He has addressed Australia's future defence needs in a range of reports and papers and in February 2011 his study of Australia's defence needs in the future Australia's Strategic Edge in 2030 was released.