E.G. Keogh oration 2015
Professor Audrey Kurth Cronin
E.G. Keogh Visiting Chair in Land Warfare Studies, 2015
The E.G. Keogh Visiting Chair in Land Warfare Studies is an annual visit by a selected eminent academic in strategic or war studies designed to increase the profile of debate on land warfare issues in Australia. The Chair is named after Colonel E.G Keogh, MBE, ED, (1899 – 1981) who served in the Australian Imperial Forces during both the First and Second World War. He was the founder and editor of the Australian Army Journal in 1948, and continued as its editor until 1976. Naming the Visiting Chair after Colonel Keogh recognises his accomplishments in professional military education and his role in ensuring that the Australian Army was well placed to develop a deep understanding the role of land warfare in Australia’s unique national security environment. The chosen distinguished Visiting Chair is a person of prominence who, through public engagement and speaking events around Australia, contributes to the rigour of debate on land warfare in the contemporary environment within the Australian Army. The visit included the delivery of the E.G. Keogh Oration. The Visiting Chair was first offered in 2014.
Audrey Kurth Cronin is Distinguished Service Professor (with tenure) and director of the international security program at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, USA. Prior to that, she was Professor and director of the core course on military strategy at the National War College (2007-2011). She came to the war college from Oxford University, where she was Academic Director of Studies for the Changing Character of War program (2005–2007). She continues as a non- residential Senior Research Associate at Oxford. Before that, she was Specialist in Terrorism at the Congressional Research Service, advising Members of the US Congress in the aftermath of 9/11. She has also served periodically in the Executive branch of the US government, including in the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Policy, where she drafted portions of the Secretary’s strategic plan.
Professor Cronin has a longstanding interest in the question of how conflicts end. While on the faculty at Oxford University, she completed How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns, her fourth book, published by Princeton University Press. She also wrote Ending Terrorism: A Strategy for Defeating Al-Qaeda, a policy-oriented Adelphi Paper published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London). Notable recent articles include ‘ISIS is Not a Terrorist Group’, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2015; ‘The “War on Terrorism”: What Does it Mean to Win?’, Journal of Strategic Studies, April 2014; and ‘Why Drones Fail: When Tactics Drive Strategy’, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2013. She is widely published in peer-reviewed academic and policy journals, also including International Security, Orbis, International Affairs, Parameters, The Washington Quarterly, and Survival.
Professor Cronin delivered her address on seeking victory against hybrid adversaries to members of the Australian Defence Force, distinguished and other guests and other parties at the Australian Defence College, Canberra, on 14 August 2015.
