Rory Medcalf is Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute and a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. His professional background spans diplomacy, journalism and intelligence analysis. He has worked as a senior strategic analyst with the Office of National Assessments, Canberra's peak intelligence agency. His experience as an Australian diplomat included a posting to New Delhi, a secondment to Japan’s foreign ministry, and truce monitoring after the civil conflict in Bougainville. He has contributed to three landmark reports on nuclear arms control: the Canberra Commission, Tokyo Forum, and International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. His earlier work in journalism was commended in Australia’s leading media awards, the Walkleys.

In parallel with his analytical work, Mr Medcalf has been active in the development of Australia's relations with India. He is Associate Director of the Australia-India Institute and the head of its Sydney Node at the University of New South Wales. He is also co-chair of the Australia-India Roundtable, the leading informal dialogue between the two countries.

His principal research subjects in 2013-14 include opinion polling on Indian attitudes to the world, the development of an Indo-Pacific concept of the Asian strategic environment, Australia's defence challenges, and maritime and nuclear strategy in Indo-Pacific Asia.