Ben Scott is a Senior Advisor at the ANU National Security College. He has over 25 years’ experience in diplomacy, think tanks, intelligence and international development and has published widely on international order, US grand strategy and competition with China, the Middle East, national security decision making, intelligence policy and cyber strategy and intelligence. He previously directed the project on Australia’s Security and the Rules-Based Order at the Lowy Institute (2021-2023) and before that represented the Office of National Assessments (ONI) in Washington, DC (from 2016-2020). 

Ben has extensive experience in the Middle East as Rule of Law Adviser to Quartet Representative Tony Blair; Australian Representative to the Palestinian Authority; at the Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv and as a senior intelligence analyst at ONI. A career highlight was serving as a Bougainville peace monitor for six months in 1998. He was admitted to practise as an Australian lawyer but avoided doing so.