Michael Evans is a research professor in Deakin University at the Australian Defence College, Canberra. He has held several senior positions in the Australian Department of Defence including the General Sir Francis Hassett Chair of Military Studies (2013-24), the Command Fellowship at the Australian Defence College (2007-12); headship of the Australian Army’s research and analysis (2001-06); and responsibility for the Australian Defence Force’s short course professional development program (2013-23). Born in Wales, and educated in Rhodesia, England and Australia, Dr Evans holds a BA History Hons (Rhodesia), an MA War Studies (King’s College London) and a PhD from The University of Western Australia. He was a Sir Alfred Beit Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College London and has held Fellowships at the University of York in England, the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA); and is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of the New Zealand Defence College. He is member of the editorial board of the Journal of Strategic Studies; Small Wars and Insurgencies; Defence and Security Analysis and The Australian Journal of Defence and Strategic Studies.
Dr Evans’ saw military service in Africa and was a regular officer in the post-civil war Zimbabwe National Army where he worked closely with the British Army in the integration of two rival guerrilla armies into a conventional land force. He was the lead author of the Australian Army’s Land Warfare Doctrine 3-0-1, Counterinsurgency (December 2009) and a lead consultant on the Army’s 2014 capstone doctrine, Land Warfare Doctrine 1, The Fundamentals of Land Power (May 2014). His publications include Vincible Ignorance: Reforming Australian Professional Military Education for the Demands of the Twenty-First Century (2023); Civil-Military Relations in Australia: Past, Present and Future, (2021) and The Tyranny of Dissonance: Australia’s Strategic Culture and Way of War, 1901-2005.
His research interests are military theory and doctrine, maritime strategy and professional military education.
Education
B.A. Hons History (First Class Hons)
Rhodesia
M.A. in War Studies
Kings College, London
Ph.D. in War Studies
The University of Western Australia