Education
Victoria University of Wellington.
Victoria University of Wellington.
He was deputy director (1996-1999) and then director (1999-2002) of the Centre for Strategic Studies: New Zealand. Dickens (Born Eketahuna,1963), educated Street Joseph"s College and Chanel College Masterton, is a former soldier with the 7th Wellington and Hawkes Bay Regiment, and 2nd/1st Battalion of the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, and was a Ministry of Defence official (1990-1996). He is a graduate of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Senior Command and Staff College Course (1993), and has Bachelor with First Class Honours (1989) and Doctor of Philosophy (1996) degrees from the Victoria University of Wellington.
His thesis was New Zealand and the Vietnam War: Official Policy Advice to the Government 1960-1972.
He visited the United States under the auspices of the United States State Department Visitor Programme in 1997 and India as a guest of the Indian Foreign Ministry in 2001.