Charles Lyons-Jones

Charlie Lyons-Jones is a Research Fellow in the Lowy Institute’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program. He oversees the annual Lowy Institute Poll and the Global Diplomacy Index.

 

Prior to joining the Lowy Institute, Charlie 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 (PM&C). Overseas, Charlie served at the Australian High Commission in Islamabad (2023-2025). In Canberra, he worked on North Korea policy at DFAT (2022-2023) and on China and Taiwan as an international adviser at PM&C (2021-2022).

 

Charlie began his career at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) as a Mandarin-enabled 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.

 

Over the course of his think tank career, Charlie's writing has featured in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Diplomat, The National Interest and his insights have been cited in The Economist, The Associated Press, The Globe and Mail and Nikkei Asia. He has also appeared on SBS World News and ABC News Radio.

 

Charlie holds a BA from the University of Melbourne and an MSc from the University of Oxford.