Peter Jennings expected to have a career in academia, having set out to complete a doctorate in his early 20s.
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But two years in, he was headhunted by the Liberal Party's defence spokesperson at the time, Peter Durack, and swiftly left the world of academia behind.
"Like a lot of people, the best career changes I had in my life were almost completely accidental, they sort of came out of conversations you weren't planning," he said.
"We moved houses about three or four years ago, and I had a PhD living in a filing cabinet in my garage and after 20 plus years, I was delighted to throw [out] the bloody thing."
The respected Defence expert, who has been appointed an officer of the Order of Australia, has since had a career spanning decades across politics, the public service and the private sector.
For the past 10 years, Mr Jennings has become well known within the nation's capital for his role as the head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute - a role he stepped down from mid-last year.
The defence think tank has helped to democratise public debate around defence and national security since its inception in 2002 under the Howard government.
It hasn't always been smooth sailing, however, with its aim being to shake up discussions typically driven by military types and the bureaucracy, Mr Jennings said.
"Defence was kind of a one horse town in Canberra," he said.
"It was the Defence Department and a handful of intelligence agencies and no one else had a view basically, no one else was allowed to have a view.
"I think what ASPI has done in 20 years, it's kind of just become a part of the Canberra furniture so governments now expect it to have a different voice.
"And that's not always been popular. I mean, not everyone wants to hear a second opinion."
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Beyond broadening discussions around defence policy, ASPI has also played a part in demystifying complex topics into plain English, Mr Jennings said.
In particular, the institute's defence budget breakdowns were particularly popular with senators sometimes frantically calling up ASPI ahead of estimates hearings to make sense of it all.
Mr Jennings said Defence had made a craft of delivering indecipherable budgets.
"The benchmark is if you can get your average senator to understand it, then you've done a pretty good job," he said.
While his work at the influential think tank has been a "joy", he's embarking on the "portfolio stage" of his career, which includes writing columns, a book and some work at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
So, don't expect his name to suddenly disappear.
"I hope to hang around for a good deal longer [to continue] being annoying to people on defence and security issues," he said.
"I want to keep going for as long as I can do doing that."