conference proceedings - Australian Army

CONTRIBUTORS
Deputy Minister, Policy, as the North America desk officer. In this capacity his
responsibilities include evaluating and analysing US defence initiatives and programs
in relation to Canada’s defence and security needs. A graduate of the University of New
Brunswick, Fredericton (BA Hons), Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario (MA), he
obtained his PhD from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA, with a disseration
titled ‘From in Country to in the Pentagon: United States Military Policy and the Training
of the South Vietnamese Army’.
Major General Michael O’Brien graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon,
in 1968. He was assigned Infantry and posted to 7th Battalion, The Royal Australian
Regiment. He performed the duties of Intelligence Officer and platoon commander
during the battalion’s second tour of duty in South Vietnam in 1970-71, and he wrote an
account of the battalion’s activities, Conscripts and Regulars: with the Seventh Battalion
in Vietnam 1967—1968 & 1970—1971 (1995). His later career included postings to
instructional, logistic and acquisitions areas. He retired as Support Commander–Army in
2001. He balances his ownership of a second-hand bookshop with defence consultancy
and voluntary work in service welfare, military museum and credit union fields.
Alan Ryan is a Senior Research Fellow in the Australian Army’s Land Warfare Studies
Centre, Duntroon. In 1987 he graduated in Law and Arts (Honours) from the University of
Melbourne, and from 1987 to 1991 he was the Australian Pembroke Scholar at Cambridge
University, where he completed a doctorate on the history of international attempts to
prevent war. Between 1981 and 1994 he served in the Australian Army Reserve and on
attachment with the British Army. With Dr Michael evans he co-edited The Human
Face of Warfare: Killing, Fear and Chaos in Battle (2000). Other recent works examine
post-Cold War coalition operations; Australian participation in peace operations; the
application of historical analytical methodology; asymmetric warfare and Total Force
structure planning. He is currently co-editing with Michael evans a book titled Future
Armies, Future Challenges: Land Warfare in the Information Age.
Colonel Bob Sayce is a graduate of the Officer Cadet School, Portsea, the Australian
Staff College and the Joint Services Staff College. He served as a platoon commander
in 4RAR/NZ (ANZAC) Battalion during 1968-69 and he returned with the battalion to
Vietnam again in 1971 as the Intelligence Officer. He subsequently held appointments
at Portsea and with the Pacific Islands Regiment, as well as a series of staff positions.
In 1996 he was appointed Military Advisor to the Court of St James, London, he was
an occasional guest lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, represented
Australia as an official observer on a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Committee and
undertook an operational visit to Bosnia. He retired from the Army in 1999.
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