Karen Middleton is a Canberra-based freelance journalist, writer and broadcaster who has covered national and international affairs for almost 30 years. Her first book, An Unwinnable War - Australia in Afghanistan, was published in 2011 and tells the political back story to our longest military conflict - how John Howard's presence in Washington DC on September 11, 2001, led to Australia spending the next decade at war.

Karen was Chief Political Correspondent for SBS television for 10 years and before that was Political Editor for The West Australian and Foreign Affairs and Defence Correspondent for The Age. She is a regular panellist on ABC TV's Insiders program and on ABC radio, a commentator on Radio New Zealand and Monocle 24 radio in the UK and currently contributes to the BBC online, the ABC's The Drum online and The Australian Women's Weekly magazine in print and online.

Karen has been a past contributor to The New York Times, CNBC and al Jazeera. She is also an occasional lecturer at the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales, in its Executive Education Program. As a volunteer, Karen has helped settle refugees in Australia and has designed a creative writing program for soldiers experiencing post-traumatic stress, to be delivered in 2016. She was a co-founder a chief lyricist for the Parliamentary Press Gallery's satirical singers, The House Howlers.