John Blaxland

• Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

Dr 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).

He is the first Australian recipient of a US Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative grant (2015-18). He is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales. He is a former military intelligence officer and has previously been a Chief Intelligence Staff Officer (J2) at HQ Joint Operations Command, defence attaché to Thailand and Myanmar. He was also the brigade intelligence officer (S2) for the land component of the International Force East Timor (INTERFET). He was posted as an exchange officer at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington DC (including for a deployment with 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit on USS Boxer) and was awarded a U.S. Meritorious Service Medal for his contribution. At ANU he has served as Head of SDSC and Director of the ANU Southeast Asia Institute, and he continues to teach“Honeypots and Overcoats: Australian Intelligence in the World” and supervise several PhD students.

His books and monographs include

Adapting to Poly-Crisis: A Proposed National Security Strategy for Australia, RSL Defence and National Security Committee - Occasional Paper No. 1, May 2024.
Revealing Secrets: An Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence and the Advent of Cyber (UNSW Press, 2023),
The US-Thai Alliance and Asian International Relations, (Routledge, 2021),
Niche Wars: Australia in Afghanistan and Iraq (ANU Press, 2020),
In From the Cold: Reflections on Australia's Korean War, 1950-1953, (ANU Press, 2020),
A Geostrategic SWOT Analysis for Australia (SDSC, ANU, 2019),
Tipping the Balance in Southeast Asia (CSIS & SDSC, ANU, 2017)
MANIS: Time for a new forum to sweeten regional cooperation (SDSC, ANU, 2016),
The Secret Cold War: the official history of ASIO, Vol. III (Allen & Unwin, 2016),
The Protest Years: the official history of ASIO, Vol., II (Allen & Unwin, 2015),
East Timor Intervention: a retrospective on INTERFET: (MUP, 2015),
The Australian Army from Whitlam to Howard (CUP, 2014),
Strategic Cousins: Australian and Canadian Expeditionary Forces and the British and American Empires (MQUP, 2006),
Revisiting Counterinsurgency: A Manoeuvrist Response to the 'War on Terror' for the Australian Army (Duntroon, Land Warfare Studies Centre, WP No. 131, 2006),
Information Era Manoeuvre: The Australian Led Mission to East Timor (LWSC WP No. 118, 2002),
Signals: Swift and Sure (Signals Committee, 1998), &
Organising an Army: The Australian Experience 1957-1965 (SDSC, ANU, 1989).
John has also published articles and chapters in edited works on how wars end, drones, leadership, intelligence, Second World War intelligence arrangements, Australian Army infantry, US-Australia security ties, Australia-Canada military relations, Defence Cooperation in Asia and Southeast Asian security.

In recent years he has lectured regularly at the ANU National Security College (on the Geostrategic SWOT Analysis for Australia) and Australian Defence College (including the Defence and Strategic Studies Course, Command and Staff Course, Australian Defence Force Academy and Royal Military College, Duntroon). He is a member of the Australian Army Journal editorial board and the Returned and Services League Defence and National Security Committee.

He has also addressed conferences and workshops on security in Australia (RUSI, U3A, Army Research Centre, Seapower Conference, The Sydney Institute, etc) Malaysia, Korea, Thailand (Thammasat, Chulalongkorn and military academies), the Philippines, Taiwan, UK (Kings College London), the USA (Minerva, CSIS, East West Centre, Harvard Asia Center, etc) and Canada and offers commentary with The Australian Institute of International Affairs, The Guardian, The Age & Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times, The Australian, The New York Times, Bangkok Post, The Straits Times, The Jakarta Post, Asia Times, Australian Foreign Affairs, The Conversation, The Saturday Paper, Lowy Interpreter, The Mandarin, East Asia Forum, SCMP, World Politics Review, The Diplomat, Policy Forum, The RAND Blog, Voices of War, Security Challenges, The Australian Army Journal, Defence Connect, The Redline Podcast, Spycast Podcast, the Journal of Global Strategic Studies and the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.

He also occasionally offers comments on television and radio including on the ABC, BBC, Sixty Minutes, CNN, SkyNews, TRT World, Arirang, WION, France24 and CNA.

Along the way, John has been an advocate for a new Reconciliation Flag for Australia in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and more recently.

• –present Senior Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

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