Ben Scott

Director, Australia’s Security and the Rules-Based Order Project
Areas of expertise

Australian national security policy; International rules and norms; US foreign policy; the Middle East

Contact
Ben Scott
Biography
Publications

Ben Scott is a Senior Advisor at the Australian National University’s National Security College. He has more than 25 years’ experience in diplomacy, think tanks, intelligence and international development. He served as the Director of the Australia’s Security and the Rules-Based Order Project at the Lowy Institute from 2020 to 2022, and at the Office of National Intelligence (ONI), which he represented in Washington, DC from 2016-2020.

Ben has published widely on national security decision-making, international order, US grand strategy and competition with China, cyber strategy and intelligence.

He also has extensive experience in the Middle East, as: a senior analyst at ONI; Rule of Law Adviser to Quartet Representative Tony Blair; Australian Representative to the Palestinian Authority and Third Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv. He served as a Bougainville peace monitor for six months in 1998.

Ben was a Diplomatic Fellow at the Lowy Institute in 2005 and wrote the Lowy Institute Paper, Re-imagining PNG: Culture, Democracy and Australia’s Role.

Defending the liberal international order
Defending the liberal international order
John Ikenberry takes a long view of the success and failures of efforts to make “a world safe for democracy”.
Australia right to back Biden on democracy
Australia right to back Biden on democracy
Foreign policy trade-offs are an uncomfortable truth on the road to rules-based freedom.
Rules-based order: What’s in a name?
Rules-based order: What’s in a name?
The genesis, rise and complex ambitions of one of the most speculated about concepts in global politics right now.
Australians need clarity on war or peace
Commentary
Australians need clarity on war or peace
A formal annual threat assessment from the government is better than the shapeless war talk voters are getting at the moment. Originally published in The Australian Financial…
Quad’s great leap forward leaves free trade behind
Commentary
Quad’s great leap forward leaves free trade behind
Originally published in The Australian.
The US and the Rules-Based Order: Testing the plan
The US and the Rules-Based Order: Testing the plan
A frank new guidance document shows that in directing his foreign policy, Joe Biden still has to resolve means and ends.
Lowy Institute Conversations: The United States and the Rules-Based Order
Podcasts
Lowy Institute Conversations: The United States and the Rules-Based Order
In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Lowy Institute Director of Australia’s Security and the Rules-Based Order project, Ben Scott, sits down with Stacie Goddard and…
The United States and the Rules‑Based Order
Interactives
The United States and the Rules‑Based Order
Six experts debate America's approach to the rules-based order.
We can’t combat China’s ‘grey zone’ war while polarised
Commentary
We can’t combat China’s ‘grey zone’ war while polarised
Originally published in The Australian.
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