Dr Ross Babbage is Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Forum Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation committed to fostering high-level discussions and debates on the primary security challenges confronting Australia and its close allies.   Dr Babbage is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) in Washington DC. In addition he is Managing Director of Strategy International (ACT) Pty Ltd, a national security consulting and education service delivery organization.   Dr Babbage served as a special advisor to the Minister for Defence during the preparation of the 2009 Australian defence white paper. He also served on the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London for a maximum six-year term.   Dr Babbage served for 16 years in the Australian Public Service holding several senior positions, including Senior Strategic Analyst in the Office of National Assessments and leading the branch in the Department of Defence responsible for ANZUS policy. Dr Babbage was Assistant Secretary, Force Development in the late 1980s, carrying responsibility for the analysis of all major defence capability proposals and the preparation of recommendations for the senior Defence committees and for Cabinet.   Through the 1990s, Dr Babbage moved to the corporate sector, working with the team that reformed and re-shaped the Office of Defence Production with its loss-making, government-owned defence factories. What emerged was a modern, profitable corporation known as ADI Limited that grew to become Australia’s largest defence company.   Dr Babbage has served a period as Deputy Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University (1987-1990) and also a period as Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (2001-2003).   As Founder, Chair and CEO of the Kokoda Foundation, he designed, developed and organized the first high-level Strategic Dialogues between Australia and the United States and subsequently he organized the first trilateral Strategic Dialogue between Australia, the United States and Japan.   Dr Babbage has Bachelor and Master degrees in economics from the University of Sydney and a PhD in International Relations from the Australian National University. Amongst his publications are: Game Plan: The Case for a New Australian Grand Strategy (Menzies Research Centre, Canberra, 2015), Winning Without Fighting: Chinese and Russian Political Warfare Campaigns and How the West Can Prevail (Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and Strategic Forum, Washington D.C.,2019), Stealing a March: Chinese Hybrid Warfare in the Indo-Pacific: Issues and Options for Allied Defence Planners (Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and Strategic Forum, Washington D.C.,2019) and Which Way the Dragon? Sharpening Allied Perceptions of China’s Strategic Trajectory, (Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and Strategic Forum, Washington D.C., 2020).  His most recent book is The Next Major War: Can America and its Allies Win Against China? (Cambria Books, New York, 2023). His most recent published report is Deterrence and Alliance Power: Why the AUKUS Submarines Matter and How They Can be Delivered, (Lowy Institute, Sydney, 2024).   Dr Babbage was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2011.

After gaining more than 39 years of military and commercial leadership experience in Australia, US, UK, Middle East, and Asia, Andrew retired from the Australian Army in March 2024. His final appointment was as Head Land Systems Division within the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, which he fulfilled for 5 years. While in that role he also led the establishment of the Australian Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise.

Other notable roles included command of Operation Sovereign Borders, the whole of Government Counter-People Smuggling Task Force; command of the drawdown of Australian Forces and the remediation of the operating base at Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan Province Afghanistan; and Command of the Army’s 17th Sustainment Brigade.

In 2017 and 2018, Andrew undertook a two-year industry secondment to Lockheed Martin in the UK, and Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle, with the aim of deepening his commercial experience prior to leading the Land Domain of CASG.

He has had the privilege of commanding at every level, from Troop to Division, and has seen operational service in the Antarctic, East Timor, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Since transitioning from Defence he has taken up a part-time Industry Professor role as the inaugural Chair in Defence and Security Capability with Deakin University, along with several advisory roles supporting Primes and smaller businesses.

Andrew holds graduate and post-graduate qualifications from RMIT University, Deakin University, and Canberra University, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.
He has been married to Sheenagh for 33 years and they have two adult children who both work overseas. He is a keen swimmer, reader, and a somewhat obsessed fly fisherman.

Marcus is Head of Research at Strategic Analysis Australia.

Marcus has spent his career addressing thorny analytical issues and wicked problems.

Previously he was a Senior Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute where he unpacked defence budget, capability and industry issues. This included demystifying the Defence Department’s budget in seven editions of The Cost of Defence.

Marcus worked for 12 years in the Defence Department, primarily in its contestability function where he held several Senior Executive Service positions. This involved conducting independent capability and cost analysis of investment proposals as well as ensuring the best advice possible was provided to the Government and senior decision makers on major capital acquisitions. He also administered Defence’s capital acquisition program.

Marcus has also worked in the Australian Intelligence Community.

Marcus has a first-class Honours degree in History from the University of Sydney and a Master’s and Ph.D. in History and the History of Science from the University of California, San Diego. He was Assistant Professor of History at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He also attended the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies where he was awarded a Master’s degree in Strategic Studies.

Marcus is Director of Strategy at C2 Robotics, an Australian company specialising in the development of autonomous systems for military applications.

Marcus is also an Expert Associate at the Australian National University’s National Security College.

Michael is Director of Strategic Analysis Australia. From 2018 until September 2022, he was the Director of the Defence, Strategy and National Security Program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in Canberra.

Before the think tank world, Michael was a deputy in two Australian intelligence agencies – the Australian Signals Directorate and the Defence Intelligence Organisation.

He has worked in two Australian Federal Government ministers’ offices. As the First Assistant Secretary for Strategic Policy in Defence, he led the team that wrote Australia’s 2013 Defence White Paper and also administered defence exports policy and legislation. In his first Senior Executive Service role he led the tender evaluation, selection and contract negotiations for the Australian Navy’s Armidale Class Patrol Boats. His last role in the Defence organisation was as the head of the Contestability Division that provides objective analysis of the overall $270 billion investment program.

Michael was Australia’s senior defence policy official in the Australian Embassy in Washington from February 2005 to June 2007. He was seconded to the UK Ministry of Defence in 1999-2000. He has also served in the Senior Executive Service in both Australia’s Finance Department and the Prime Minister’s Department, where he was head of the Defence, Intelligence and Research Division.

Michael is married to Margaret and they have three children.

Peter is a Director of Strategic Analysis Australia.

He is the Principal of Peter Jennings Strategy Consultants Pty Ltd, providing strategic advice to several Australian and international businesses and to Commonwealth agencies. He is a member of the international Public Sector Advisory Council for Fortinet and a columnist for The Australian newspaper.

Peter was the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) for a decade between 2012 and 2022.  He worked in senior roles in the Australian Public Service on defence and national security, including being Deputy Secretary for Strategy in the Defence Department (2009-12); Chief of Staff to the Minister for Defence (1996-98) and Senior Adviser for Strategic Policy to the Prime Minister (2002-03).

From 2014 to 2016 Peter was appointed to lead an expert panel on the 2016 Defence White Paper. He was a member of the Australia-Germany Advisory Group and a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Advisory Group on Australia-Africa Relations.

Peter has a Masters degree in Management from London Business School (2000–2001), a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Australian National University (1987) and a BA (Honours) in History from the University of Tasmania (1980–1984). He was a Fulbright Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1985).

In January 2023 Peter was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for “distinguished service to the development of strategic and international policy, and to public affairs.” He was awarded the Public Service Medal in the Australia Day 2013 Honours list and the French decoration of Knight in the Order of Legion of Honour in 2016. In 2021 he was awarded a Commendation by the Foreign Minister of Japan for services to the bilateral relationship.