Associate ProfessorBob Breen

In 2020, Professor Breen shifted his research focus to the relationship between China and Australia, aiming to foster a more respectful connection as tensions escalated during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, he self-published Disappointing the Dragon: How Australia Should Stand Up to the Communist Party of China, which warns of the Chinese grey-zone threat and highlights Australia’s vulnerabilities. The book also proposes a sovereign strategy for de-escalation by raising a fourth armed service. His most recent book on this subject is titled Let's Trade, Not Argue: An Australian Strategy for Securing a Respectful Relationship with China.  He has continued researching and publishing Australian Army operatonal histories:

2026 From the Apple Orchard to Kapyong: 3 RAR in Korea, September 1950-April 1951, the Campaign series, vol 34, Australian Army History Unit, Canberra, with Hardy Grant, Melbourne, 

2023, Australian Force Somalia 1992-93, the Campaign series, vol 31, Australian Army History Unit with Big Sky Publishing,   

2025 Chapter 15 The Kangaroo Exercise Series, 1989-1995, rehearsing mobilisation and force projection, in John Blaxland (ed), Mobilising the Australian Army: Challenges and compromises over more than a century, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne

2025 Chapter 16, Auditing force projection: the Australian Army’s performance in six Australian deployments 1987-2005, in John Blaxland (ed), Mobilising the Australian Army: Challenges and compromises over more than a century, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne