Nicholas Dynon is Chief Editor of Defsec New Zealand’s enterprise and national security publications New Zealand Security Magazine, Line of Defence Magazine and Fire NZ Magazine. He is concurrently Group Brand Strategy & Innovation Director at Optic Security Group.
Nicholas served with Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection in Sydney, Shanghai (2005-2008) as Vice Consul, Beijing (2008) and Suva (2009-2012) as First Secretary, and Parliament House, Canberra. He concurrently served in the Australian Army reserve forces as a non-commissioned and then commissioned officer, and is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Australia.
Nicholas holds a B.A. Hons and an M.A. in Asian Studies from the Australian National University and a Master of International Studies Hons from the University of Sydney. His peer-reviewed articles have been published in The China Journal, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, China: An International Journal, and National Security Journal (NSJ). A founding member of the NSJ Editorial Board and co-founder of Women in Security Awards Aotearoa, he is the recipient of the 2022 New Zealand Outstanding Security Performance Award (OSPA) for Lifetime Achievement.
Selected articles (as author)
- Showboat Diplomacy: Chinese navy mousetrap mission achieves Tasman objective, Line of Defence Magazine, Autumn (March) 2025.
- Foodstuffs’ facial recognition survey results inconsistent with existing research, Line of Defence Magazine, Summer (December) 2024.
- Will privatised aviation security deliver efficiencies at New Zealand’s airports or invite risk?, New Zealand Security Magazine, December 2024.
- In your face: our acceptance of facial recognition technology depends on who is doing it – and where, Line of Defence Magazine, 08 November 2024 update.
- Richard Heydarian: ASEAN’s inaction and Philippines’ leverage in South China Sea, Line of Defence Magazine, Winter (June) 2024.
- New Zealand retailer’s trial of controversial Live Facial Recognition CCTV poses big questions, Line of Defence Magazine, Autumn (March) 2024.
- Is AUKUS the end of New Zealand foreign and defence policy bipartisanism? Should we worry?, Line of Defence Magazine, 13 February 2024 update.
- ANZMIN: NZ and Australian Defence and Foreign Ministers take aim at China, Line of Defence Magazine, 02 February 2024 update.
- A Lamentation: Retail violence reflects descent into incivility of criminals – and consumers, Line of Defence Magazine, Winter (July) 2023.
- Seeing Red: What, exactly, is the problem with Chinese CCTV cameras?, New Zealand Security Magazine, April 2023.
- Coordinated Review of the management of the LynnMall supermarket attacker highlights mental health gaps, New Zealand Security Magazine, February 2023.
- US Secret Service publishes behavioural threat assessment report covering five years of attacks, New Zealand Security Magazine, February 2023.
- New role, same team: An interview with Babcock’s Mark Worsfold, Line of Defence Magazine, Summer 2022-23.
- Planned Auckland terror attack a wake-up call say crowded places security experts, New Zealand Security Magazine, December 2022.
- Is democracy declining or just being redefined?, Line of Defence Magazine, Summer 2021/22.
- The Interview: Andrew Bridgman, Secretary of Defence, Line of Defence Magazine, Spring 2021.
- One Eye Open: Mental health blind spot in counter-terror efforts, Line of Defence Magazine, Spring 2021.
- Crowded Places Strategy: from development to implementation, New Zealand Security Magazine, April-May 2021.
- Information Domain: New Zealand in the age of information competition, Line of Defence Magazine, Summer 2020/21.
- Introducing the New Zealand Information Domain, Line of Defence Magazine, 05 December 2020 update.
- Does an increasingly powerful China present a dilemma for New Zealand?, Line of Defence Magazine, Spring 2020.
- Contactless Borders and post-Covid travel, Line of Defence Magazine, Winter 2020.
- How powerful is China? Comparing economic, military and soft power, Line of Defence Magazine, Autumn 2020.
- A New Zealand strategy for protecting crowded places from attack, Line of Defence Magazine, Autumn 2020.
- Facilities and Public Spaces conference offers answers to ‘wicked’ problems, New Zealand Security Magazine, October 2019.
- Defsec editor speaks at launch of National Security Journal, Line of Defence Update, October 2019.
- Opinion: Protestors beat hollow victory drum, Line of Defence Magazine, Spring 2019.
- Facial Recognition: the front line of security versus privacy, New Zealand Security Magazine, June 2019.
- New Zealand, China, and the limits of friendship, Line of Defence Magazine, Autumn 2019.
- Behaviour detection at the border: dark art or science?, New Zealand Security Magazine, October 2018.
- Chinese Tech: Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, New Zealand Security Magazine, August 2018.
- Let’s start talking seriously about robots, New Zealand Security Magazine, August 2018.
- Learning from China: ‘Soft war’ and cultural security, Line of Defence Magazine, Summer 2017/18.
- Protecting crowded places from terror attack, Line of Defence Magazine, Spring 2017.
- Opinion: Towards an economics of terror threat in New Zealand, Line of Defence Magazine, Winter 2017.
- The paradox of information sharing at New Zealand’s borders, Line of Defence Magazine, Winter 2017.
- The fog of smokeless war: A cyber security capability for NZDF, Line of Defence Magazine, Autumn 2017.
- Swings and carousels in airport and border security, New Zealand Security Magazine, April/May 2015.
