Dr John Reeve
Senior Lecturer
History Program
Osborne Fellow in Naval History
Phone: +61 2 6268 8876
Fax: +61 2 6268 8879
Email: j.reeve@adfa.edu.au
Professional Background
Dr John Reeve was educated at Melbourne University (BA Hons, MA) and Pembroke College, Cambridge University (PhD), and taught British, European, naval and military history at Cambridge, Yale, Hong Kong and Sydney Universities before being appointed to UNSW@ADFA as Senior Lecturer and Osborne Fellow in Naval History.
Honours and Awards
- Aitchison-Myer and Alma Hansen Travelling Scholarships, University of Melbourne, 1979-83
- Rothmans Research Fellow, University of Melbourne, 1984-6
- Visiting Fellow, Newberry Library, Chicago, 1987
- Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University, 1987-88
- elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, 1991
- Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge University, 1996
- Australian Research Council Large Grant 1996-99
- elected Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1998
- Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge University, 2010
Research Interests
- Naval history and history of maritime strategic thought
- Contemporary maritime strategic affairs
- Amphibious warfare
- Great power rivalry and geopolitics in the contemporary Asia-Pacific
- Early modern British foreign policy and military strategy (currently completing research for a major book entitled England's Rise to Power: Diplomacy and Warfare 1600-1700)
- Early modern European international relations and warfare
Consulting Interests
- Strategic policy work with Royal Australian Navy since 1999
- Testified before Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade during Parliamentary inquiry into Australia's maritime strategy, 2003 (testimony quoted extensively in report of the inquiry: Australia's Maritime Strategy (Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 2004)
- Participated in organisation of all six biennial King-Hall Naval History Conferences, 1999-2009
- Historical consultant to Australians at War Film Archive, funded by Dept of Veterans Affairs
- Extended periods as board member of Australian Association for Maritime Affairs, Naval Advisory Group of the Australian War Memorial, Headmark: Journal of the Australian Naval Institute, Journal of Australian Naval History, and the RAN Sea Power Centre's monograph series Papers in Australian Maritime Affairs
Publications
Books:
- Charles I and the Road to Personal Rule (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989 and several reprints), xi, 325 pp
- (co-ed. with D. Stevens), Southern Trident: Strategy, History and the Rise of Australian Naval Power (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2001), xx, 363 pp
- (co-ed. with D. Stevens), The Face of Naval Battle: The Human Experience of Modern War at Sea (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2003), xx, 363 pp
- (co-ed. with D. Stevens), The Navy and the Nation: The Influence of the Navy on Modern Australia (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2005), xxvi, 438 pp
- (co-ed. with D. Stevens), Seapower Ashore and in the Air (Sydney: Halstead Press, 2007), 320 pp
- Associate Editor (and multiple contributor), The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (multi-volume, Oxford: British Academy/Oxford UP, 2004), editing a block of early modern military biographies
Working Papers:
- The Development of Naval Strategy in the Asia-Pacific Region 1500-2000 (Canberra: RAN Sea Power Centre Working Paper No. 4, 2000), iv, 16 pp
- Maritime Strategy and Defence of the Archipelagic Inner Arc (Canberra: RAN Sea Power Centre Working Paper No. 5, 2001), iv, 19 pp
Articles in Refereed Journals:
- 'Sir Thomas Roe's Prophecy of 1629', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, lvi, 133, May, 1983, pp. 115-21
- 'The Legal Status of the Petition of Right', The Historical Journal, xxix, 2, June, 1986, pp.257-77
- 'The Arguments in King's Bench in 1629 Concerning the Imprisonment of John Selden and Other Members of the House of Commons', Journal of British Studies, xxv, 3, July, 1986, pp.264-87
- 'Quiroga's Paper of 1631: a Missing Link in Anglo-Spanish Diplomacy During the Thirty Years War', The English Historical Review, ci, 401, October, 1986, pp.913-26
- 'Sir Robert Heath's Advice for Charles I in 1629', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, lix, 140, November, 1986, pp.215-24
- 'The Politics of War Finance in an Age of Confessional Strife: a Comparative Anglo-European View', Parergon: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, new series, 14, 1, July, 1996, pp.85-109
- (editor and contributor) 'George Yule: a Tribute by His Friends', Parergon: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, new series, 18, 3, July, 2001, pp. x-xviii
- "The Relevance of the Surface Warship as a Weapons System: An Australian View", Australian Defence Force Journal, 177, 2008, pp.62-72
- "Masters of History: Three Students of Trinity College", Victorian Historical Journal, 80, 1, June, 2009, pp.76-90
- "Naval History and Joint Professional Military Education: A Personal View", Australian Defence Force Journal, 181, 2010, pp.14-20
- "Surface Combatants, Survivability and Strategic Value", Defender: The Journal of the Australia Defence Association (forthcoming)
Book Chapters:
- 'Britain and the World Under the Stuarts, 1603-1689' in J. S. Morrill (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996, reprinted in paperback edition, 2000), pp.416-31
- 'Secret Alliance and Protestant Agitation in Two Kingdoms: the Early Caroline Background to the Irish Rebellion of 1641' in I. Gentles, J. Morrill and B. Worden (eds), Soldiers, Writers and Statesmen of the English Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998), pp.19-35
- 'Britain or Europe– The Context of Early Modern English History: Political and Cultural, Economic and Social, Naval and Military' in G. Burgess (ed.), The New British History: Founding a Modern State 1603-1715 (London: Tauris, 1999), pp.287-312
- 'The Development of Naval Strategy in the Asia-Pacific Region 1500-2000' in G. Till (ed.), Seapower at the Millennium (Stroud/ Portsmouth: Sutton/Royal Naval Museum, 2001), pp.134-44 (previously published as RAN SPC Working Paper No. 4)
- 'Mahan, Corbett and Modern Maritime Strategy' in H. Smith (ed.), The Strategists (Canberra: Australian Defence Studies Centre, 2001), pp.41-53
- 'Naval Warfare 1600-1700' in C. Messenger (ed.), Reader's Guide to Military History (London: Dearborn, 2001), pp.435-37
- 'The Rise of Modern Naval Strategy c.1580-1880' in Stevens and Reeve, Southern Trident, pp.7-23
- 'An Anatomy of the Face of Naval Battle' in Reeve and Stevens, The Face of Naval Battle, pp.3-37
- 'Alliance Warfare in Early Modern Europe' in P. Dennis and J. Grey (eds), Entangling Alliances: Coalition Warfare in the Twentieth Century (Loftus, NSW: Australian Military History Publications, 2005), pp.19-37
- 'Maritime Nations - The Lucky League' in Stevens and Reeve, The Navy and the Nation, pp.370-83
- 'Maritime Operations and Counter-Terrorism: An Australian View' in J. McCaffrie (ed.), Positioning Navies for the Future (Sydney: Halstead Press, 2006), pp.91-110
- 'Triumph or Tragedy– Reflections on the History of Joint Power Projection Ashore' in Stevens and Reeve, Sea Power Ashore and in the Air, pp.262-72
- 'British Naval Strategy: War on a Global Scale' in D. Stoker, K. J. Hagan and M. T. McMaster (eds.), Strategy in the American War of Independence: a Global Approach (London: Routledge, 2010), pp.73-99
- "US Maritime Operations and Contemporary Geopolitics: The War on Terror and the New Great Game in the Early-Twenty-First Century" in B. A. Elleman and S. C. M. Paine (eds), Naval Power and Expeditionary Warfare: Peripheral Campaigns and New Theatres of Naval Warfare (London: Routledge, 2011), pp.182-196
- "Sir Dudley Carleton and Sir Thomas Roe: English Servants of the Queen of Bohemia and the Protestant International during the Thirty Years War" in Dolly Mackinnon, Alexandra Walsham and Amanda Whiting (eds.), Essays in Honour of D. E. Kennedy (title and publisher TBC, forthcoming )
Magazine Articles:
- 'Naval History Launched at ADFA: the Osborne Fellow Reflects on the First Two Years' in Navy Annual, 1999
- 'How Not to Defend the Inner Arc: the Lessons of Japanese Defeat' in The Navy: The Magazine of the Navy League of Australia, 62, 2, July-September, 2000
- 'The Surface Warship as Force Multiplier: the Lessons of History in The Navy: The Magazine of the Navy League of Australia, 70, 3, July-September, 2008 (reprinted in Headmark: Journal of the Australian Naval Institute, 129, September, 2008)
Courses Taught
Undergraduate:
- The Rise of Modern Navies and Sea Power 1500-1900
- Naval History and Sea Power in the Twentieth Century
- Assault from the Sea: The History of Amphibious Warfare
- Introduction to Strategic Studies
Postgraduate:
- Modern Naval History and Strategy
- Amphibious Warfare
- The Rise of the European Warfare State
Professional Education Course:
- Introduction to Naval and Maritime Strategy
Supervision:
Successful completion and continuing supervision of many theses at BA Honours, Master and PhD levels
Areas of Potential Postgraduate Supervision
- Naval history (including history of the RAN)
- Australian defence policy in its maritime context
- History of maritime strategic thought
- Contemporary maritime strategic affairs
- Amphibious Warfare
- Early modern diplomatic and military history