Professor Toni Erskine awarded 2026 Jeffrey Grey Distinguished Chair

Professor Toni Erskine, from the Department of International Relations at the Coral Bell School, has been awarded the 2026 Jeffrey Grey Distinguished Chair at the Australian War College. She was selected for her leading work on AI in the military domain, and is the first Australia-based scholar to receive this honour.

In this role, Professor Erskine will engage with Department of Defence and Australian Government audiences through consultations and academic sessions, including lectures and syndicates. She will also deliver the 2026 "Grey Oration", a public address at the Australian War College, on 22 October 2026. The oration will draw on her current research to explore the implications of AI increasingly shaping strategic decision making in war, and the challenges posed by the emerging role of powerful frontier AI companies in this context.

Background: In 2018, the Chief of Defence Force agreed to establish a Visiting Chair in Defence Studies, known as the Grey Chair, to contribute to education, research and public debate in priority Defence areas. These include strategy, military history and theory, disruptive technology, military innovation and adaptation, professional military education, future joint warfighting and operations, defence economics, military leadership, and ethics. The Chair is named in honour of the late Professor Jeffrey Grey, an Australian military historian best known for A Military History of Australia. Professor Grey had an eminent career, including service in the Department of Foreign Affairs and a long tenure at the Australian Defence Force Academy, where he taught thousands of officer cadets and midshipmen.

The 2026 Grey Oration will be held in the Blamey Theatre at the Australian War College on Thursday 22 October at 1800h, preceded by a reception from 1700 to 1800h. Attendance is in person only; register here.