About Defence Observer and David Pugliese

Pugliese reports independently in Afghanistan
PHOTO BY SASHA UZUNOV

Defence Observer takes you inside the world of Canada’s military, providing updates on equipment purchases, ongoing programs, new policies and technologies. You’ll find reports on the political and industry machinations that help shape the defence world, as well as stories on Canadian military history and general interest defence topics.

The writer and editor of Defence Observer is David Pugliese, who has been writing about military affairs and the Canadian Armed Forces since 1982. Pugliese, an award-winning journalist, currently works for the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.

Since 1990, in addition to his work at the daily Ottawa newspaper, Pugliese has been employed as a correspondent for the U.S. publication Defense News, as well as Space News.

His freelance articles on military issues have also appeared in more than a dozen publications, including: The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists; Training and Simulation Journal; Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Journal; Army Times; Air Force Times; International Combat Arms; the Canadian Defence Quarterly; National Defense magazine; the U.S. Navy League’s Seapower magazine; Saturday Night magazine; and the Financial Times.

He has provided commentary on defence issues for BBC Radio and RTE (Irish Radio), Global National TV, CTV News, CTV’S Canada AM, the CBC National and Newsworld, and CBC Radio’s Morningside.

Pugliese is also author of two best-selling books on special operations forces: “Canada’s Secret Commandos: the Unauthorized Story of Joint Task Force Two” and “Shadow Wars: Special Forces in the New Battle Against Terrorism.”

He has reported from war and conflict zones around the world, including in Croatia, Bosnia, the Sudan, Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier, the Philippines, Haiti and the Gaza Strip. Pugliese also reported as an unembedded journalist during the Afghanistan war and contributed to two documentaries about that conflict.

Pugliese has won three National Newspaper Awards for his reporting and three awards from the Canadian Association of Journalists. In 2020, Pugliese was awarded the Spencer Moore Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom. “Pugliese has been a fearless chronicler of the Canadian military for many years,” the committee said in announcing the award.

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