David Kilcullen

Dr David Kilcullen is the founding president and CEO of Caerus Associates LLC, a start-up that specialises in solutions to the world’s hardest problems: economic development, violent conflict, humanitarian assistance, energy shortage, and climate change. He is an adviser to NATO, and a consultant to a range of organisations seeking to make a difference in conflict and post-conflict environments, and the developing world.

Before joining private industry, Kilcullen had a distinguished career in government, including 22 years as an infantry officer in the Australian army. Since leaving the army, he has served with the US State Department, and advised the highest levels of the Bush and Obama administrations. He served in the Iraq war as senior counterinsurgency adviser to General David Petraeus during the successful 2007 'Surge', and in Afghanistan as counterinsurgency adviser to the International Security Assistance Force.

Kilcullen has a PhD in political anthropology, and is the author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including The Accidental Guerrilla (2009), Counterinsurgency (2010) and Out of the Mountains (forthcoming 2011).

Books