Infantrymen from 18 Brigade advancing inland from Yellow Beach under cover of Australian-crewed Matilda tanks of 1 Armoured Regiment (Australian Imperial Force). Balikpapan, Southeast Borneo. 1945.

War Studies Seminar Series

Since 2013, the War Studies Seminar Series has provided a forum for presentations on a wide range of topics on the myriad aspects of war by outstanding scholars from both Australia and overseas.

Primary Landing Page

The renowned military historian Sir Michael Howard once wrote that military history should be studied in width, depth and context. While history is only one strand of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre's research, Howard’s aphorism highlights a key element of the Centre’s approach to analysing strategic and security challenges.

On

Norman Wilkinson, The Landing in Suvla Bay: Early Morning, 7 August 1915. Art.IWM ART 2451.

Mon, 21 Sep 2026

‘Chained like Prometheus’: The failure of the 11th (Northern) Division at the Suvla Bay landing, 6/7 August 1915.

Jeff Cleverly examines the 11th Division's failed Suvla Bay landing, Aug 1915, revealing command failures that doomed Hamilton's Gallipoli offensive and early WWI British Army performance.

AP: LIBKOS

Mon, 14 Sep 2026

War Studies Seminar Series: How Russia Fights

Andrew Stewart examines Russia's repeated pattern of early military failure followed by attrition-driven success, in cases including the Winter War, Chechnya and the current war in Ukraine.

Australian Army Vessel Clive Steele disgorging a mobile carne at a beach near Can Tho in the Mekong Delta, October 1969. (AWM COM/69/0729/VN)

Mon, 22 Jun 2026

Sustaining the Commitment: Australian Army Logistics in South Vietnam, 1962–1973

War Studies Seminar Series

Speaker

Mon, 18 May 2026

Parliamentary Scrutiny of the Military in Australia: A Comparative Perspective

War Studies Seminar Series

Mon, 11 May 2026

Navigating the New Zealand Wars

War Studies Seminar Series

German Army

Wed, 22 Apr 2026

On Bundeswehr: German military history beyond Hitler

War Studies Seminar Series

Canadian troops near Ortona in Italy, 10 December 1943. (National Archives of Canada PA 136332)

Mon, 23 Feb 2026

Attrition & Learning: British Empire Armies & the experience of major combat operations, 1914-45

War Studies Seminar Series

Speaker

Mon, 29 Sep 2025

Collateral Voices: Civilian Perspectives and the Ethics of War

War Studies Seminar Series