Professor Stephan Frühling teaches and researches at the Strategic and Defence Centre of The Australian National University and has widely published on Australian defence policy, defence planning and strategy, nuclear weapons, and NATO.

Stephan was the Fulbright Professional Fellow in Australia-US Alliance Studies at Georgetown University in Washington DC in 2017. He worked as a 'Partner across the globe' research fellow in the Research Division of the NATO Defense College in Rome in 2015 and was a member of the Australian Government's External Panel of Experts on the development of the 2016 Defence White Paper.

Previously, he was the Acting Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (2022), Associate Dean Partnership and Engagement (2021-2022), Deputy Dean (2020-2021), and Associate Dean Education (2016-2020) in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, the inaugural Director of Studies of the ANU Master in Military Studies program at the Australian Defence Force's Australian Command and Staff College (2011-2013), and Managing Editor of the Kokoda FOundation's journal Security Challenges (2006-2014).