Alan Ryan

Alan Ryan is the Executive Director of the Australian Civil-Military Centre, which is responsible for developing Australia’s national capabilities to prevent, prepare for, and to respond more effectively to conflicts and disasters overseas.  

From 2006 to 2011 he served as the Principal of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies at the Australian Defence College. Prior to this appointment he was the senior adviser on strategy, operations, intelligence and international issues to the Minister for Defence, Senator the Honorable Robert Hill AC. He has worked as a consultant on strategy, security and crisis management to clients that included Australian government departments, the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in the United Nations.

From 1999 to 2003, he was the Senior Research Fellow in the Army’s principal conceptual research institution, the Land Warfare Studies Centre. Prior to that Dr Ryan was Assistant Dean in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and the College of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia.  

Dr Ryan has a Ph.D from the Centre for International Studies at Cambridge University and a BA (Hons.)/LL.B from the University of Melbourne. He has completed the Senior Managers in government Program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Between 1981 and 1993 he served as an infantry soldier and officer with the Australian Army Reserve and on attachment with the British Army.

He has published over 40 books, articles and chapters on history, defence and strategic issues. He was appointed an Honorary Professor in the Graduate School of Management at Latrobe University in 2006.