Major General Mick Ryan of the Australian Defence Force and Steve Leonard, the creator of Doctrine Man!! join Joe to discuss the benefits of science fiction and Steve’s new book, To Boldly Go: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond. Listen to this episode to learn about why a healthy dose of science fiction helps us become better problem solvers.
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About Mick (@WarintheFuture) and Steve (@Doctrine_Man)
Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan (Australian Army) graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1989. He has commanded Army units at the Troop, Squadron, Regiment, Task Force, and Brigade levels during his three-decade career.
From 2010 to 2011, Maj. Gen. Ryan worked in the Pakistan Afghanistan Coordination Cell on the US Joint Staff, as the Division Chief for Governance, Development, and Engagement, and subsequently in a new Strategy and Policy Division.
As a general officer, he has served as the Director General Strategic Plans in Army Headquarters, Commander of the 1st Brigade in Darwin, and as Director General Training and Doctrine for the Australian Army.
Maj. Gen. Ryan has a bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies from the University of New England and is a graduate of the Australian Defence Force School of Languages (Indonesian). He is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and a graduate of the USMC School of Advanced Warfighting. In 2012, he graduated with distinction from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies with a Master of International Public Policy.
Maj. Gen. Ryan has a longstanding interest in military history and strategy, advanced technologies, organizational innovation, complex adaptive systems, and adaptation theory. He was inaugural President of the Defence Entrepreneurs Forum (Australia), and is proud Member of the Military Writers Guild. He is a keen writer on the interface of military strategy, the profession of arms, innovation, and advanced technologies (particularly AI and robotics), as well as how institutions can develop their intellectual edge.
He was appointed Commander of the Australian Defence College in January 2018.
Steve Leonard joined the University of Kansas School of Business as the Director of the graduate program in Business and Organizational Leadership following a twenty-eight-year career in the US Army. He is a former senior military strategist and the creative force behind Doctrine Man!! A career writer and speaker with a passion for developing and mentoring the next generation of thinking leaders, he is the co-founder of Divergent Options, a founding member of the Military Writers Guild, and a frequent contributor to the Atlantic Council’s Art of Future Warfare Project. Published extensively, his writing focuses on issues of foreign policy, national security, strategy and planning, leadership and leader development, and, occasionally, fiction. An alumnus of the School of Advanced Military Studies, he led the interagency team that authored the US Army’s first stability operations doctrine, spearheaded the reintroduction of operational art into capstone doctrine, and penned the doctrinal principles for the Army Design Methodology. He is the author of four books, numerous professional articles, countless blog posts, and is a prolific military cartoonist. Follow his writing on his personal blog, The Pendulum, and on Twitter at @Doctrine_Man.
