Prof John Blaxland is Director of the ANU North America Liaison Office and Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC), Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific at the  Australian National University (ANU).

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).

Professor Admiral Chris Barrie AC, FAICD ,FAIM, FARPI, RAN Retired

• Honorary Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
• Patron, Australian Council of Security Professionals
• President, Australian Crime Prevention Council

Chris Barrie retired in 2002 after 42 years in the RAN, ending in four years of service as the Chief of the Defence Force (CDF). Since then he has worked on strategic leadership issues as consultant, teacher and mentor at Oxford University, the National Defense University in Washington DC, and at the Australian National University.

At ANU Chris has been Chair of the London Foundation and a Commissioner for the Kioloa Coastal Campus, and a Director in the Tuckwell Foundation. He teaches occasionally on campus and at the Australian Command and Staff College and at one time facilitated induction courses for new APS entrants into the Department of Defence. He has also co-facilitated executive education courses for the National Security College on risk. A key current commitment is the conduct of an annual 15-day scenario game for the Department of Pacific Affairs.

He is Chair - PTSD Australia New Zealand, which has launched FearLess Outreach to assist all Australians and New Zealanders who have post-traumatic stress or live with people who have it. National conversations about PTSD to engage with people living with PTSD is a feature of this work.

He became very concerned about climate change matters in 2006 after which he taken advocacy action to raise awareness of the potential costs of inaction. In 2008, he was an early member of the Climate Change Institute’s expert advisory panel. In 2015, he was an author of a report for the Climate Council on “Climate Change, Security and the ADF”. The launch of this report preceded a conference on the topic which he co-chaired with Professor Will Steffen from ANU..

Chris is also a member of the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change (GMACCC). As well, in 2021 he became a founding and an executive member of the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group (ASLCG) where he continues with outspoken advocacy on the human, domestic and international dimensions of insufficient action in Australia on climate change and systematic failures to prepare adequately to deal with its consequences.