Associate Professor Garth Pratten is Deputy Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. An historian by training, he has had a varied career having worked for the Australian Army’s Training Command and the Australian War Memorial, and taught at Deakin University and in the War Studies Department at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Garth was a member of the research staff for the Official History of Australia’s Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts and an author for the Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations.

Garth’s interest in the conduct of military operations has led him to conduct field work in France, Belgium, Libya, Brunei, Indonesia, Malayasia, Singapore, Turkey and Cyprus. In 2010, while working for the British Ministry of Defence, he deployed to Afghanistan as part of the team compiling the war diary for ISAF’s Regional Command South.

In April 2006, Garth was awarded the Australian Army’s CEW Bean prize for his PhD thesis, the book of which - Australian Battalion Commanders in the Second World War - was runner up for the Templer Medal in 2010.

Career highlights

Consultant Historian Australian Army Doctrine Centre (1995-1997); Historian, Australian War Memorial (1997-2000, 2003-2007); Senior Lecturer in War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (2007-2010).

Dr Bou is a lecturer in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre where his teaching duties include lecturing at the Australian Command and Staff College and in the undergraduate program at Acton. A historian he is a graduate of the University of Queensland and holds a PhD in History from the University of New South Wales (at the Australian Defence Force Academy). In 2006 he joined the SDSC as a researcher for the Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations and has remained involved with that project, being the co-author of the forthcoming fourth volume. Dr Bou has also been a historian in the Military History Section of the Australian War Memorial, during which time he remained a Visiting Fellow at the SDSC. He is the author or co-editor of several books on Australian military history.