PhD Scholars

Mr Ablong is currently a doctoral student concentrating on Revolutionary Concepts in National Security. This research will look beyond the Revolution in Military Affairs to the Revolution in National Affairs that is becoming more relevant in the 21st century security environment. After a career in private enterprise, Mr Ablong joined the Australian Department of Defence, where he worked consistently at the strategic level within the Australian Defence Headquarters and related areas, specialising in strategic policy, whole-of-nation concepts and capability development. His many positions have had a strong emphasis on the development of policies associated with national security and military strategy. He has prepared numerous analytical studies on future technological, organisational and doctrinal issues for the twenty first century military organisation, in both a single service (Navy and Air Force) and joint (Australian Defence Force) context.

BEc (Sydney), LLB (Hons) (Sydney), LLM (Columbia)
David Brewster joined the SDSC in 2007. His doctoral research explores the strategic engagement of India in East Asia, in particular, with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Singapore. What is India’s future security role in the region? Prior to joining the SDSC he was a corporate and mergers and acquisitions lawyer, practising for almost two decades in Australia, Europe and the United States.

BA (Hons) University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba
James Bunce joined the SDSC as a PhD candidate in March 2007 after securing a Sir Arthur Tange PhD Scholarship. Under the supervision of Professor Hugh White, his thesis will explore Australian military planning for operations in the region directly to its north since 1950, examining the increasing willingness to deploy military forces into the region, and the thinking behind the decisions to use force, or not. Prior to arriving at The Australian National University, James graduated with first class honours in international relations from USQ, as well as receiving the USQ School of Humanities and Communication’s Honours Thesis Prize for 2007.

BBA (NUS), MIRAP (Queensland)
William Choong joined the SDSC in March 2005 after receiving an ANU PhD Scholarship. His project focuses on the the viability of American deterrence strategies in the post-Cold War world, studied through the lens of the historical relationship between the United States and China. Previously he had worked at The Straits Times, Singapore's national daily, covering macroeconomic and global affairs. He holds a BBA (Merit) from the National University of Singapore and a Masters in International Relations and Asian Politics from the University of Queensland.

BA(Hons)(Toronto), M.Litt Strategic Studies (Aberdeen, Scotland)
Michael Henderson joined the SDSC in July 2006. Prior to moving to Canberra, he worked in education in Korea and Japan and government in the United Kingdom and Australia. He currently works part-time for the Australian Trade Commission in their Government, International and Policy Department. He is writing his PhD on the Five Power Defence Arrangements and is supervised by Dr Ron Huisken, Professor Hugh White and Dr Robert Ayson.

BIC (UNITEC, Auckland), BA (Hons) and MA (Hons) in Political Studies (Auckland)
Amanda Lennon joined the SDSC as a PhD candidate in 2007. Under the supervision of Dr Robert Ayson, her thesis will explore the current structuring of military organisations in order to determine the extent to which they are responding to both the challenges of the external environment and their own emerging and future strategic and joint operating concepts. Prior to arriving at ANU, Amanda spent a year working on future concept and capability development in the New Zealand Defence Force. Until taking up this employment, Amanda's academic research had focused on the revolutionary, the unconventional and the irregular, with her 2003 Honours Dissertation, Fourth Generation Valkyries: A Strategic Analysis of Female Suicide Attacks in Unconventional Warfare and 2005 Masters Thesis, Into the Labyrinth: An Exploration of Insurgent Groups and their Network Neighbourhoods. Amanda was a founding member of Auckland University's Department of Political Studies' 'Working Group on Alternative Security Perspectives', has lectured on terrorism as an unconventional tactic, and offered media commentary in New Zealand concerning various terrorist events.

BA, BA(Hons) (Auckland), MA (ANU)
Roy McDowall joined the SDSC in February 2009 to begin a PhD examining Indonesia in Australia's Defence Planning. Prior to this he successfully completed a Masters degree with the Graduate Studies in Strategy and Defence program at The Australian National University. His previous degrees were awarded by the University of Auckland and he was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand. Roy's research interests include Australian foreign and defence policy and Middle East politics, and his Masters sub-thesis entitled 'Howard's Long March', examining the Howard Government's Strategic Depictions of China, was subsequently published in April 2009 by ANU E Press (as SDSC Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 172).

Dipl.Jur. (Hamburg), LL.M. (Qld)
Christopher Michaelsen joined the SDSC in 2003. His PhD thesis is an interdisciplinary study of domestic responses to terrorism in Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia in the framework of civil liberties, human rights and the rule of law. Chris has studied law and international relations at the University of Munich and graduated in law from the University of Hamburg. He also holds a Master of Laws from the University of Queensland specialising in international human rights and security law. In January 2006, Chris took up a position at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw, Poland, but continues to work on his PhD on a part-time basis. He is supervised by Dr Rob Ayson.