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.

Rules Based Audio (Episode 2): In Conversation with Shirley Scott
Podcasts
Rules Based Audio (Episode 2): In Conversation with Shirley Scott
In this episode of Rules Based Audio, Ben Scott talks to Professor Shirley Scott, Professor of International Law and International Relations at UNSW, Canberra.
ANZUS and Trumpism
ANZUS and Trumpism
Australia needs to acknowledge its blind spots in its 70-year friendship with America.
Sharpening deterrence
Sharpening deterrence
The language around the who, what and how of Australia’s defence strategy needs an overhaul.
This is America’s new foreign policy on show
Commentary
This is America’s new foreign policy on show
The abandoning of Afghanistan is all about a shift to diplomacy and deal-making, not firepower and force. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review.
How Biden's China doctrine can swing the pendulum back
Commentary
How Biden's China doctrine can swing the pendulum back
A shift toward the center is more likely in coming months. Originally published in Nikkei Asia Review.
Decoding intelligence on Afghanistan
Decoding intelligence on Afghanistan
An official inquiry should answer much wider questions about the US mission than only those of the final few weeks.
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.
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