Charles Lyons Jones is a Research Fellow in the Lowy Institute’s Foreign Policy and Public Opinion Program.

Prior to joining the Lowy Institute, Charles served in the Australian government for five years, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Overseas, Charles served at the Australian High Commission in Islamabad; in Canberra, he worked on North Korea policy at DFAT and on China and Taiwan as an international adviser at PM&C.

Charles’ service in Islamabad coincided with the May 2025 armed conflict between India and Pakistan, following the Pahalgam terrorist attack. In recognition for their work during the crisis, he and his colleagues at the High Commissions in Islamabad and New Delhi won a Secretary’s Award for Outstanding Leadership from Jan Adams AO PSM.

Charles began his career at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) as an analyst of China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army. He was co-author of ‘Leaping Across the Ocean: The Port Operators Behind China’s Naval Expansion’ and was an integral part of the ASPI team that built the ‘China Defence Universities Tracker’. His writing has featured in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Diplomat, The National Interest and has been cited in The Economist.

Charles holds a BA from the University of Melbourne and an MSc from the University of Oxford. He speaks Mandarin and can drive a Civilian Armoured Vehicle (CAV).