Ashton Robinson began his career in the then Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra. Most of his subsequent experience in government was with the Australian Department of Defence, the Iraq Survey Group in Baghdad and the Office of National Assessments (ONA) â¿" part of the Australian Prime Minister's portfolio â¿" where he dealt with long-term strategic matters, including terrorism, transnational crime and irregular migration. Throughout his career Ashton has been an occasional lecturer at Wollongong, Sydney and La Trobe universities as well as at the Australian Defence Force Academy and at the Australian Command and Staff College in Canberra. Ashton joined the University of Melbourne's School of Social and Political Sciences as an Honorary Fellow in 2016. He now blogs for the Lowy Institute's Interpreter.