He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Victoria in 1996. He has authored and edited several books and journal articles. His fields of expertise are military and maritime law, the laws and customs of war, operational art, naval administration, fiscal and legislative control over armed forces, defence procurement and logistics and the philosophers of war and peace. Dr. Madsen is a member of the Canadian Nautical Research Society, the Canadian Historical Association, the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History and the Naval Officers' Association of Canada.