Jim Molan

Major General Andrew James (Jim) Molan is a retired senior officer in the Australian Army.

"Jim" Molan joined the Australian Army following completion of his schooling in Victoria. On graduating from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1971 he was allocated to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Queensland. He is a graduate of the ADF School of Languages where he studied Indonesian. He maintains an interest in aviation and holds civil commercial licences and instrument ratings for fixed and rotary wing aircraft. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and is accredited as a Master Project Director (MPD).

Military career
Molan has a long and active military career. Regimental postings include:
 * First Battalion, Pacific Island Regiment (Papua New Guinea) as a rifle platoon commander;
 * Ninth Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment, as Adjutant;
 * Rifle company second-in-command and rifle company commander in the Third Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment;
 * Commanding Officer of the Sixth Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment;
 * Commander of the Army's mechanized First Brigade
 * Commander of the 1st Division and its Deployable Joint Force Headquarters.

Molan was the Commander of the Australian Defence College, including
 * the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA - a joint undergraduate university),
 * the Australian Command and Staff College (ACSC - a joint staff college for officers of Major equivalent rank) and
 * the Australian Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies (CDSS - a course for civilians and officers of Colonel equivalent rank).

He served as the Army Attache in Jakarta as a Colonel between 1992 and 1994 and for this service he was awarded the Indonesian decoration Bintang Dharma Yudha Nararya in 1995. Between 1998 and 1999, Jim Molan was the Defence Attache in Jakarta as a Brigadier and served in East Timor. On 25 March 2000 he was upgraded to Officer of the Order of Australia for his service in Indonesia and in East Timor.

In April 2004, he deployed for a year to Iraq. He was despatched to serve as the Chief of Operations for the new Headquarters Multinational Force in Iraq, which was being planned. However, he initially instead spend some time trying to find a specific role within the headquarters structure, before being allocated responsibility for energy security. He was eventually made Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, and served during continuous and intense combat operations. For distinguished command and leadership in this period, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by the Australian Government and the Legion of Merit by the United States Government.

After returning from Iraq he served as:
 * Defence Materiel Advocate, Defence Materiel Organisation
 * Adviser to the Vice Chief of the Defence Force on Joint Warfighting Lessons and Concepts

Major General Molan retired in July 2008.

Post-Military
In August 2008 Molan released his first book, Running the War in Iraq. The book concentrates on his experience as Chief of Operations in Iraq during 2004-2005, but contains some criticism about Australia's current capacity to engage in military conflict. In an August 2008 speech, Molan stated that "Our military competence was far worse than even we thought before East Timor, and people may not realise that the military performance bar has been raised by the nature of current conflict, as illustrated in Iraq and Afghanistan." Writing in a February 2009 article, Molan called for a doubling of the Australian military presence in Afghanistan, from about 1100 troops to 2000.

Molan has been associated with the Liberal Party of Australia, helping to launch the Liberal opposition party's military-led border protection campaign in the lead up to the 2013 general election in Brisbane on 25 July 2013. Molan has been an outspoken critic of the Australian Labor Party's management of Defence matters. The Minister for Defence, Stephen Smith described Molan as 'partisan' and a "Liberal Party activist".

Publications
Molan is frequently asked to express his opinion on matters related to his expertise, and to recount his experiences. The following is an incomplete list of his publications:

Personal
Molan is married with three daughters and a son. His wife's name is Anne. His preferred name is Jim.

Honours and awards