Professor Admiral Chris Barrie AC, FAICD ,FAIM, FARPI, RAN Retired

• Honorary Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
• Patron, Australian Council of Security Professionals
• President, Australian Crime Prevention Council

Chris Barrie retired in 2002 after 42 years in the RAN, ending in four years of service as the Chief of the Defence Force (CDF). Since then he has worked on strategic leadership issues as consultant, teacher and mentor at Oxford University, the National Defense University in Washington DC, and at the Australian National University.

At ANU Chris has been Chair of the London Foundation and a Commissioner for the Kioloa Coastal Campus, and a Director in the Tuckwell Foundation. He teaches occasionally on campus and at the Australian Command and Staff College and at one time facilitated induction courses for new APS entrants into the Department of Defence. He has also co-facilitated executive education courses for the National Security College on risk. A key current commitment is the conduct of an annual 15-day scenario game for the Department of Pacific Affairs.

He is Chair - PTSD Australia New Zealand, which has launched FearLess Outreach to assist all Australians and New Zealanders who have post-traumatic stress or live with people who have it. National conversations about PTSD to engage with people living with PTSD is a feature of this work.

He became very concerned about climate change matters in 2006 after which he taken advocacy action to raise awareness of the potential costs of inaction. In 2008, he was an early member of the Climate Change Institute’s expert advisory panel. In 2015, he was an author of a report for the Climate Council on “Climate Change, Security and the ADF”. The launch of this report preceded a conference on the topic which he co-chaired with Professor Will Steffen from ANU..

Chris is also a member of the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change (GMACCC). As well, in 2021 he became a founding and an executive member of the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group (ASLCG) where he continues with outspoken advocacy on the human, domestic and international dimensions of insufficient action in Australia on climate change and systematic failures to prepare adequately to deal with its consequences.