Michael (Mick) Prictor is a PhD scholar at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, ANU Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.

Michael previously served for nearly four decades in the Australian Army. He was a Black Hawk helicopter pilot and commanded Army Aviation units at the squadron, regiment and brigade level.

He has served in strategy, plans and operations roles in Australia and the United States, and with NATO and the UN. Operationally he served in East Timor, Iraq, Northern Sumatra, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Prior to retiring from full-time service, he served as Deputy Director Strategy Plans and Policy, United States Central Command.

Michael has had a lifelong passion for military history, and has explored nearly 300 historic battlefields across six continents. His research is focussed on how military commanders perceived, interpreted and exploited small scale terrain on the battlefield, and why similar terrain-based opportunities were recognised by some commanders but missed by others.