Denis McLean, New Zealand diplomat, academic, author and civil servant died he was , 80.

Denis McLean, CMG  was a New Zealand diplomat, academic, author and civil servant died he was , 80..

(18 August 1930 – 30 March 2011)

He began with the Department of External Affairs in 1957 after completing his Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford. He was posted to Washington DC, Paris, Kuala Lumpur and London, where he was deputy high commissioner from 1972-77. He was Secretary of Defence from 1979 to 1988 and Ambassador to the United States from 1991 to 1994. After his retirement from government service in 1995, Mr. McLean served as the Joan and James Warburg Chair of International Relations at Simmons College in Boston. Mr McLean's distinguished career as a public servant, writer, historian and commentator on international relations also led him to be a Guest/Visiting Scholor at the Strategic & Defense Studies Centre, ANU, Canberra, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He wrote three books: The Long Pathway, Te Araroa, based on walking the North Island with his family, Prickly Pair, on Australian-NZ relations, and Howard Kippenberger: Dauntless Spirit, a biography of military commander Sir Howard Kippenberger. He also served on the Press Council. McLean died on 30 March 2011 at his home in Wellington.^[1]

 

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