Dr Marigold Black

I am a War Studies scholar and historian of ideas working across defence policy and military practice. My research examines the hidden architectures of thought shaping security and defence strategies in complex and evolving environments. Current research includes:

• Complex adaptive systems as self-constructed battlespaces and the ethical dilemmas of intervention
• Polymathic thinking under uncertainty to improve decision-making in space, cyber, and AI-enabled warfare
• Dispersed knowledge systems and their strategic advantage in modern warfare
• Chinese and Western traditions of sovereignty in comparative perspective

Before joining UNSW Canberra, I was a Research Leader in Strategy and Statecraft at RAND where I led and contributed to research across a wide range of national security and strategic policy issues including:

• Military integration of robotics and autonomous systems
• Insider threat
• Governance in Antarctica and outer space
• Stopgap, adapted, and improvised weapons 
• Countering violent extremism online
• Countering foreign interference
• Chinese military deterrence signalling
• Defence mobilisation planning
• Cyber-threat futures
• Extended nuclear deterrence in the Indo-Pacific
• Grey zone warfare
• Economic deterrence
• Sovereign capability

I have held fellowships with the Australian Army Research Centre, the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, and the Laureate Research Program in International History at the University of Sydney. I was also Founder and Director of a private research company supporting clients in the Australian defence and national security sectors.

I completed my PhD in history at the University of Sydney, where my research explored the intellectual pre-history of the U.S. Constitution, focusing on understandings of sovereignty before and during the American Revolution.

For 2026-2027, I am also a non-resident fellow at RAND Australia.