Professor John Blaxland – “Intelligence Reforms: Progress and Pitfalls”

John Blaxland is Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies, Director of the ANU Southeast Asia Institute and Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at ANU, overseeing its three degree programs. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales. In addition, he is a member of the ANU Academic Board as well as the Australian Army Journal editorial board and an occasional commentator in the media. He is a US Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative grant recipient.

John holds a PhD in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada, an MA in History from ANU and a BA (Hons 1) from UNSW. He is a graduate of the Royal Thai Army Command & Staff College (dux, foreign students) and the Royal Military College, Duntroon (Blamey Scholar). He has extensive experience in the intelligence community including as the principal intelligence staff officer for the Australian brigade in East Timor in September 1999, as an intelligence exchange officer in Washington DC, as Director Joint Intelligence Operations (J2), at Headquarters Joint Operations Command (2006/7) and as a lead author of the three-volume history of ASIO. In addition he was Australia’s Defence Attaché to Thailand and Myanmar.  He teaches “Honeypots and Overcoats: Australian Intelligence in the World” and supervises a number of students undertaking higher degrees by research.

His publications and research interests concern intelligence and the security arms of government, Australian military history and strategy, defence studies, military operations (including East Timor, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan); international relations, notably on South-east Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Timor Leste, Indonesia, South China Sea), North America, (Canada/United States) and Australia’s Flag.