KEI Contributor

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 a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He is also the first Australian recipient of a US Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative grant (2015-18). Prior to academia, John was a military intelligence officer, serving as Chief Intelligence Staff Officer (J2) at HQ Joint Operations Command, and 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. He has taught "Southeast Asian Security Studies" and “Honeypots and Overcoats: Australian Intelligence in the World” and supervised several PhD students. He is also a member of the ANU Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions (ICEDS)

John is an Australian citizen, born in Chile. He went to school at Barker College, Sydney. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon (Blamey Scholar), the University of New South Wales (BA Hons. 1), the ANU (MA), the Royal Thai Army Command and Staff College (diploma), and the Royal Military College of Canada (PhD, War Studies).