David Last, PhD served for thirty years in the Canadian Armed Forces, retiring at the rank of lieutenant-colonel.  He is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada (BA), Carleton University (MA), the London School of Economics (PhD, Commonwealth Scholar), and the US Army Command and General Staff College (MMAS). He commanded Blue Beret Camp in UNFICYP (Cyprus) 1992-93, where he completed research on the handling of incidents and worked with the Inter-communal Conflict Resolution Steering Committee. He conducted research in Croatia with the Peacekeeper Interview Program in 1994, and served as the Military Assistant to the Deputy Force Commander of UNPF from May-December 1995 (in Zagreb). From January-July 1996 he was the Civil Affairs officer for the Serb side the Canadian Multinational Brigade area (in northwest Bosnia).  Lieutenant Colonel Last spent two years developing courses and conducting research at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, and then served as staff officer for Counter Terrorism and Special Operations before moving to teach at RMC in 1999. His book, Conflict De-escalation in Peacekeeping Operations, is published by the Canadian Peacekeeping Press (1997), and he has published more than forty chapters and articles on peacekeeping and various aspects of conflict management. His final three years in uniform were as the Registrar of the Royal Military College.

Dr Last teaches in the Department of Political Science at the Royal Military College of Canada. His research interests focus on the management and prevention of violence, and third party intervention in protracted social conflict.

Dr Last currently serves as Head of the Department of Politics and Economics at RMC, May 2010 to June 2011.