David was educated as a nuclear engineer; he has worked in public and private sectors as a military officer, as a consultant in business and corporate security, and as a senior advisor and professor in heavy engineering, humanitarian aid, post-conflict/post-disaster response and recovery, executive development and university education.

He is currently based in Kingston, Canada, where he does research, curriculum development, teaching and facilitation of strategic foresight focusing on security domains, comparative civil-military relations, Asia Pacific security, and human security engineering. He is most interested in the dynamics of the interconnections between leadership, management and strategic issues and the impacts of significant actors' biases, assumptions and interests.

Six years (1996-2002) were spent in Jakarta and Singapore and working throughout Asia. From 2004 to 2008, he ran one of the three MA programmes at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC). From the Canadian Defence Academy, he continues to support defence diplomacy projects, including seminars and courses on civil-military relations in Canada and abroad.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Initiatives Project and the Proteus Canada Institute, a member /ex-Board member of Canadian Pugwash, Associate Executive Director of Foresight Canada, the Chair of the Canadian Node of the Millennium Project, and Assistant Coach of the RMC varsity rugby team.

David Harries has lived in 19 countries and paid between 1 and 20 working visits to another 93.