John Blaxland and Clare Birgin: Revealing Secrets

John Blaxland is Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies, at the Australian National University and Director of the ANU North America Liaison Office in Washington DC. He is the author of several books on intelligence and military history. His latest, with Clare Birgin, is Revealing Secrets: An Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence and the Advent of Cyber (UNSW Press, 2023) 

Clare Birgin’s career in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other agencies has spanned more than thirty years, focusing on eastern Europe, intelligence and security matters, multilateral trade negotiations and the Middle East. Her first posting was to Warsaw. She also served in Moscow, Geneva, and as Liaison Officer for the Office of National Assessments in Washington. She was Australia’s Ambassador in Hungary, then in Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Romania. She co-authored Revealing Secrets, an Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence and the Advent of Cyber with Professor John Blaxland. 

Author of best-selling Darwin Spitfires (NewSouth 2011 and 2022) and Dispatch from Berlin, 1943 (NewSouth 2023), Dr. Anthony Cooper is a retired Brisbane school teacher. He has so far released seven books on aspects of Australian and Allied military history, published both in Australia and the UK, including HMAS Bataan, 1952, (NewSouth 2010), 'Kokoda Air Strikes' (NewSouth 2014), 'RAAF bombers over Germany, 1941-42' (Rosenberg, 2016), 'Paddy Finucane and the legend of the Kenley Wing' (Fonthill 2016), and 'Sub Hunters' (Fonthill 2020).