Colonel David Beaumont is a Director of Executive and Professional Development at the National Security College, and publishes widely on strategy and strategic policy, military preparedness, logistics, mobilisation and whole-of-nation responses to crises.

David is a military logistician by background, and has led Army training institutions and supported Australian Defence Force modernisation and capability development. He has served in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Australian and multi-lateral military commitments, and has worked in inter-Departmental environments. David’s recent position in the Army was as Director of the Australian Army Research Centre, and until July 2022 was responsible to the Chief of Army for many of the Army’s research partnerships with domestic and international academia and research-institute, as well as the development of bespoke research projects and programs.

David researches, writes and presents about strategic policy, logistics, military capability development, and the involvement of the ‘whole-of-nation’ in defence and national security. He commenced doctoral research at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, in 2016; David’s research is examining the interaction between the ‘national support base’ and Defence in the 1980’s and 1990’s to support military preparedness. He manages, edits and writes to an international audience at the blog ‘Logistics in War’ (www.logisticsinwar.com) and other online venues. His last major paper was 2020’s ‘An uncertain and dangerous decade’ which examines the coming decade as characterised by strategic competition, post-pandemic crisis responses and new roles and tasks for the ADF.

David’s academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts (History and Politics) and Master of Business (Strategy) from the University of New South Wales, and a Master of Arts (Military Studies) by research from the Australian National University.