Gary Waters

Gary Waters retired from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as an Air Commodore in 2002, worked as a senior public servant in Defence for four years, and has worked with Jacobs Australia as Head of Strategy for the past five years.

Between 1985 and 1997, Gary completed his staff college training in the UK, taught at the RAAF Staff College, was a visiting fellow to The Australian National University, ran the Air Power Studies Centre, and served as Director of Capability Planning in the Australian Defence Headquarters.

From 1998 to 2005, Gary served as Head of the Australian Defence Staff (London), as Head of the Theatre Headquarters Project, and finally as Director General Operation Safe Base.  As a public servant he was the inaugural Assistant Secretary Knowledge Planning in Defence, and then moved to be Assistant Secretary Information Strategy and Futures within the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

Since 2005 Gary has been Head of Strategy for Jacobs, in which capacity he also consults in the principal areas of strategy, capability development, cyber security, risk management, preparedness and logistics.

He has written thirteen books on doctrine, strategy, cyber security, and military history.  His latest two books are ‘Australia and Cyber Warfare’ (with Professor Des Ball and Ian Dudgeon, 2008), and ‘Optimising Australia’s Response to the Cyber Challenge’ (with Air Vice-Marshal John Blackburn, 2011).

He is a Fellow of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (graduating with majors in accounting and economics); a CPA; a graduate of the UK’s Royal Air Force Staff College; a graduate of the University of New South Wales, with an MA (Hons) in history; a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors; and a graduate of The Australian National University with a PhD in political science and international relations.

He has been a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Vice President of the United Services Institute, and Inaugural Board Member and Treasurer of the Kokoda Foundation.

Australia and Cyber-warfare »

Authored by: Gary Waters, Desmond Ball, Ian Dudgeon
Publication date: July 2008
This book explores Australia’s prospective cyber-warfare requirements and challenges. It describes the current state of planning and thinking within the Australian Defence Force with respect to Network Centric Warfare, and discusses the vulnerabilities that accompany the use by Defence of the National Information Infrastructure (NII), as well as Defence’s responsibility for the protection of the NII. It notes the multitude of agencies concerned in various ways with information security, and argues that mechanisms are required to enhance coordination between them. It also argues that Australia has been laggard with respect to the development of offensive cyber-warfare plans and capabilities. Finally, it proposes the establishment of an Australian Cyber-warfare Centre responsible for the planning and conduct of both the defensive and offensive dimensions of cyber-warfare, for developing doctrine and operational concepts, and for identifying new capability requirements. It argues that the matter is urgent in order to ensure that Australia will have the necessary capabilities for conducting technically and strategically sophisticated cyber-warfare activities by the 2020s. The Foreword has been contributed by Professor Kim C. Beazley, former Minister for Defence (1984–90), who describes it as ‘a timely book which transcends old debates on priorities for the defence of Australia or forward commitments, [and] debates about globalism and regionalism’, and as ‘an invaluable compendium’ to the current process of refining the strategic guidance for Australia’s future defence policies and capabilities.