David Horner

Horner was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 12 March 1948.{{cite web|url=http://www.vietnamroll.gov.au/VeteranDetails.aspx?VeteranId=1273160|title=Horner, David Murray|access-date=9 June 2009|work=Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans|publisher=Commonwealth of Australia}} He was raised in a military household—his father, Murray Horner, had served in New Guinea during the Second World War. Like Murray, David Horner attended Prince Alfred College.Prince Alfred College, "Professor David Horner", https://pac.edu.au/community/princes-men-gallery/professor-david-horner/ Horner was a prefect and served on numerous committees including the yearbook, debating, cadets, and student christian movement.Prince Alfred College chronicle, years 1961-1965, https://pac.edu.au/news-events/publications/pac-chronicle/

later joined the Citizen Military Forces—and joined the Australian Army after completing school in 1966. On graduating from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1969, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Australian Infantry Corps. In 1971, Horner served an eight-month tour in Vietnam as a platoon commander in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.{{cite news|title=Spies like us|last=Sygall|first=David|date=17 January 2009|work=The Sun-Herald}} He was a visiting fellow with the Department of History at the Australian Defence Force Academy from 1985 to 1988, and a member of the directing staff at the Joint Services Staff College in 1988 to 1990. Horner retired from the full-time army in 1991 on gaining a position with the Australian National University (ANU) and transferred to the Australian Army Reserve, with which he served for more than a decade. He was the inaugural commanding officer of the Land Warfare Studies Centre (1998–2002), and retired with the rank of colonel.{{cite web|title=David Horner, Historian|url=http://www.silversea.com/onboard/enrichments/guest-lecturers/david-horner/|work=Guest lecturers|publisher=Silversea|access-date=4 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520171805/http://www.silversea.com/onboard/enrichments/guest-lecturers/david-horner/|archive-date=20 May 2017|url-status=dead}}

Horner has a Diploma of Military Studies from Duntroon, a Master of Arts (Honours) from the University of New South Wales, and graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy from the ANU in 1980. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Robert O'Neill and completed while a serving major in the army, concerned Australian and Allied strategy in the Pacific War and formed the basis for his second book, High Command: Australia and Allied Strategy, 1939–1945 (1982).{{cite thesis|title=Australia and Allied strategy in the Pacific, 1941–1946|url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/11255|type=PhD Thesis|year=1980 |publisher=Australian National University|doi=10.25911/5d74e42a45ea0 |access-date=4 April 2017|last1=Horner |first1=David Murray |hdl=1885/11255}}

Horner was appointed to a position at the ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre in 1990. In 1998 he was described as "one of Australia's most respected military historians",[http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/j34/bridgerev.htm Carl Bridge (1998). Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College, London.] Retrieved from Australian War Memorial, 11 March 2007. and in 1999 was made Professor of Australian Defence History at the ANU's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (later the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs);{{cite web|url=http://rspas.anu.edu.au/people/personal/hornd_sdsc.php|title=David Horner – ANU College of Asia and the Pacific – ANU|publisher=Australian National University|access-date=17 January 2010|archive-date=6 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706114005/http://rspas.anu.edu.au/people/personal/hornd_sdsc.php|url-status=dead}} a role he served in until 2014.{{cite web|title=Professor David Horner AM|url=http://www.assa.edu.au/fellows/703/|work=Fellows|publisher=Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia|access-date=3 April 2017}}

In 2004 Horner was appointed the Official Historian and general editor for the Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations, a six-volume history covering Australia's involvement in international peacekeeping operations from 1947 to 2006. Horner authored or co-authored the second and third volumes: Australia and the 'New World Order' (2011) and, with John Connor, The Good International Citizen (2014). A team led by Horner also won a tender to write the official history of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). The three-volume series, which traces the first forty years of ASIO's history from 1949 to 1989, was led by Horner's The Spy Catchers (2014).{{cite web|title=The Spy Catchers|url=https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/history/The-Spy-Catchers-David-Horner-9781743319666|publisher=Allen & Unwin|access-date=3 April 2017}} John Blaxland's The Protest Years followed in 2015,{{cite web|title=The Protest Years|url=https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/history/The-Protest-Years-John-Blaxland-9781925266931|publisher=Allen & Unwin|access-date=3 April 2017}} and Blaxland and Rhys Crawley's The Secret Cold War in 2016.{{cite web|title=The Secret Cold War|url=https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/history/The-Secret-Cold-War-John-Blaxland-and-Rhys-Crawley-9781760293215|publisher=Allen & Unwin|access-date=3 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404053403/https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/history/The-Secret-Cold-War-John-Blaxland-and-Rhys-Crawley-9781760293215|archive-date=4 April 2017|url-status=dead}} The Spy Catchers jointly won the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Australian History, was sole winner of the St Ermin's Hotel Intelligence Book of the Year Award, and was long-listed for the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Australia Prize for a Book in 2015. Horner also undertook a feasibility study in 2012 into what eventually became the Official History of Australian Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Australian Peacekeeping Operations in East Timor.{{cite book|last1=Horner|first1=David|editor1-last=Ball|editor1-first=Desmond|editor2-last=Carr|editor2-first=Andrew|title=A National Asset: 50 Years of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre|date=2016|publisher=ANU Press|location=Canberra|isbn=9781760460570|page=134|url=https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/national-asset|chapter=Researching History at SDSC}}

Horner has written or edited 32 books and more than 75 journal articles, reports and chapters in books. In 2009, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his "service to higher education in the area of Australian military history and heritage as a researcher, author and academic."{{cite web|url=http://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/honours/qb/qb2009/Media%20Notes%20AM%20%28A-L%29%20%28final%29.pdf|title=Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia (A–L)|access-date=9 June 2009|work=The Queen's Birthday 2009 Honours List|publisher=Governor-General of Australia|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412042554/https://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/honours/qb/qb2009/Media%20Notes%20AM%20%28A-L%29%20%28final%29.pdf|archive-date=12 April 2018|url-status=dead}} Horner retired from full-time academia in 2014, and was appointed an emeritus professor at the ANU. He was made a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2015.

• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David |title = Crisis of Command: Australian Generalship and the Japanese Threat, 1941–1943 |year=1978 |publisher=Australian National University Press |location=Canberra |isbn=9780708113455 |author-mask=1 |url-access=registration |url = https://archive.org/details/crisisofcommanda00horn }}
• {{cite book |last=Horner |first=David |title = High Command: Australia and Allied Strategy, 1939–1945 |year=1982 |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |location=Sydney |isbn=9780868610764 |author-mask=1 }}
• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David |title = SAS Phantoms of the Jungle: A History of the Australian Special Air Service |year=1991|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9781863730075|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David |title=General Vasey's War |year=1992 |publisher=Melbourne University Press |location=Melbourne|isbn=9780522844627|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David |title = The Gulf Commitment: The Australian Defence Force's First War |year=1992 |publisher=Melbourne University Press |location=Melbourne |isbn=0522845118 |author-mask=1 }}
• {{cite book |last=Horner |first=David |title = The Gunners: A History of Australian Artillery |year=1995 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=Sydney|isbn=9781863739177|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David |title = Inside the War Cabinet: Directing Australia's War Effort, 1939–1945 |year=1996|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=978-1863739689|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book |last1=Horner|first1=David|last2=Ball|first2=Desmond |author2-link = Des Ball |title = Breaking the Codes: Australia's KGB Network |year=1998 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=Sydney |isbn=9781864485783|author-mask=1 }}
• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David |title=Blamey: The Commander-in-Chief |year=1998|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9781864487343|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David|title=Defence Supremo: Sir Frederick Shedden and the Making of Australian Defence Policy|year=2000|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=978-1865082806|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David|title=Making the Australian Defence Force|series=The Australian Centenary History of Defence|volume=4|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Melbourne|isbn=9780195541175|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David|title=The Pacific|series=Second World War|volume=1|year=2002|publisher=Osprey Publishing|location=Oxford|isbn=978-1841762296|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book |last=Horner|first=David|title=Strategic Command: General Sir John Wilton and Australia's Asian Wars|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Melbourne|isbn=9780195552829|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|last1=Horner|first1=David|last2=Thomas|first2=Neil|title=In Action with the SAS|year=2009|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9781741755527|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|last=Horner|first=David|title=Australia's Military History for Dummies|year=2011|publisher=Wiley Publishing Australia|location=Milton, Queensland|isbn=9781742169835|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|last=Horner|first=David|title=Australia and the New World Order: From Peacekeeping to Peace Enforcement 1988–1991|series=Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations|volume=2|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Port Melbourne|isbn=9780521765879|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|last1=Horner|first1=David|last2=Connor|first2=John|title=The Good International Citizen: Australian Peacekeeping in Asia, Africa and Europe 1991–1993|series=Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations|volume=3|year=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Port Melbourne|isbn=9781107021624|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|last=Horner|first=David|title=The Spy Catchers|series=The Official History of ASIO|volume=1|year=2014|publisher=Allen & Unwin|isbn=9781743319666|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|last1=Horner|first1=David|last2=Bou|first2=Jean|last3=Breen|first3=Bob|last4=Pratten|first4=Garth|author-link4=Garth Pratten|last5=de Vogel|first5= Miesje|title=The Limits of Peacekeeping: Australian Missions in Africa and the Americas, 1992–2005|series=Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations|volume=4|year=2018|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Port Melbourne|isbn=9781107101968|author-mask=1}}
• {{cite book |last=Horner |first=David |author-link=David Horner |title = The War Game: Australian War Leadership from Gallipoli to Iraq |publisher = Allen & Unwin |year = 2022 |location = Crows Nest, New South wales |isbn = 978-1-76106-595-8|author-mask=1}}

• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|editor-last2=O'Neill|editor-first2=Robert|editor-link2=Robert O'Neill (historian)|title=New Directions in Strategic Thinking|year=1981|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=London|isbn=0043550134|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|editor-last2=O'Neill|editor-first2=Robert|title=Australian Defence Policy for the 1980s|year=1982|publisher=University of Queensland Press|location=St. Lucia|isbn=0702217816|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|title=The Commanders: Australian Military Leadership in the Twentieth Century|year=1984|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9780868614960|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|title=Australian Higher Command in the Vietnam War|year=1986|publisher=Strategic and Defence Studies Centre|location=Canberra|isbn=0867848936|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|title=Duty First: The Royal Australian Regiment in War and Peace|year=1990|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9780044422273|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|editor-last2=Bou|editor-first2=Jean|title=Duty First: A History of the Royal Australian Regiment|edition=2nd|year=2008|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9780044422273|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|title=Reshaping the Australian Army: Challenges for the 1990s|year=1991|publisher=Strategic and Defence Studies Centre|location=Canberra|isbn=0731511921|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|editor-last2=Ball|editor-first2=Desmond|title=Strategic Studies in a Changing World: Global, Regional and Australian Perspectives|year=1992|publisher=Strategic and Defence Studies Centre|location=Canberra|isbn=0731513711|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|editor-last2=Penglase|editor-first2=Joanna|title=When the War Came to Australia: Memories of the Second World War|year=1992|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=St. Leonards|isbn=1863733205|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|title=The Army and the Future: Land Forces in Australia and South-East Asia|year=1993|publisher=Directorate of Departmental Publications, Defence Centre for Director of Army Activities and Public Affairs|location=Canberra|isbn=0644290048|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|title=The Battles That Shaped Australia: The Australian's Anniversary Essays|series=The Australian Series|year=1994|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9781863737043|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|title=Armies and Nation-Building: Past Experience – Future Prospects|year=1995|publisher=Strategic and Defence Studies Centre|location=Canberra|isbn=0731523008|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|title=SAS Phantoms of War: A History of the Special Air Service|year=2002|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=9781865086477|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|title=Australia's Strategic Involvement in the Middle East: An Overview|year=2004|publisher=Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research|location=Abu Dhabi|isbn=9789948006657|editor-mask=1}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Horner|editor-first=David|editor-last2=Londey|editor-first2=Peter|editor-last3=Bou|editor-first3=Jean|title=Australian Peacekeeping: Sixty Years in the Field|year=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Port Melbourne|isbn=9780521516068|editor-mask=1}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• Australian War Memorial [http://www.awm.gov.au/histories/peacekeeping/ Peacekeeping Official History]

{{refend}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horner, David}}

Category:1948 births

Category:Australian colonels

Category:Australian military historians

Category:Australian military personnel of the Vietnam War

Category:Australian National University alumni

Category:Academic staff of the Australian National University

Category:Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia

Category:Living people

Category:Members of the Order of Australia

Category:Academics from Adelaide

Category:Royal Military College, Duntroon graduates

Category:University of New South Wales alumni

Category:Military personnel from Adelaide

Category:People educated at Prince Alfred College