ANCORS Fellow

James Goldrick
Fellow

James Goldrick joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1974 as a 15 year old Cadet Midshipman. A graduate of the RAN College , he holds a BA degree from the University of NSW and an MLitt from the University of New England .

A Principal Warfare Officer and anti-submarine warfare specialist, he has seen sea service around the world with the RAN and on exchange with the British Royal Navy, including the patrol vessel HMS Alderney, the frigates HMS Sirius, HMAS Swan and HMAS Darwin and the destroyer HMS Liverpool . He has served as Executive Officer of HMA Ships Tarakan and Perth and as Commanding Officer of HMAS Cessnock. He twice commanded the frigate HMAS Sydney and later served as the inaugural Commander Australian Surface Task Group. During this posting, he commanded the Australian task group deployed to the Persian Gulf in early 2002 and also served as commander of the multinational naval forces conducting maritime interception operations to enforce UN sanctions on Iraq , including units from the RAN, the United States Navy, the Royal Navy and the Polish Armed Forces.

Shore postings have included serving as Aide to the Governor-General of Australia, as an instructor on the RAN's Principal Warfare Officer course, as Officer-in-Charge of the RAN's tactical development, tactical training and warfare officer training faculty, as Research Officer and later as Chief Staff Officer to the Chief of Navy Australia, as Director of the RAN Sea Power Centre and as Director-General Military Strategy in the Australian Department of Defence. He took command of the Australian Defence Force Academy in September 2003.

James Goldrick has lectured in naval history and contemporary naval affairs at many institutions. He spent 1992 as a Research Scholar at the US Naval War College and is a Professorial Fellow of the Centre for Maritime Policy at the University of Wollongong . Published books include The King's Ships Were at Sea: The War in the North Sea August 1914-February 1915, With the Battle Cruisers (edited ), Reflections on the Royal Australian Navy (co-edited ), Mahan is Not Enough (co-edited) and No Easy Answers: The Development of the Navies of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He has contributed to many other works, including The Royal Australian Navy ( Vol. III of The Australian Centenary History of Defence), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy, A Nation's Navy: In Quest of Canadian Naval Identity, Dimensions of Sea Power: Strategic Choice in the Modern World, South Africa and Naval Power at the Millennium, Maritime Strategies in Asia, The Great Admirals and Naval Power in the Twentieth Century. He has also contributed widely to professional journals, including The United States Naval Institute Proceedings. As a junior officer he twice won the Guinness Prize of the British Naval Review .

James Goldrick is married to Ruth Wilson and they live in Canberra with their two sons, aged 11 and 8.