Dr Benjamin Zala
Areas of expertise
- International Relations 160607
- Defence Studies 160604
Research interests
Global order and polarity analysis; historical great power diplomacy; strategic relations in the Asia-Pacific; rising powers; nuclear arms control and disarmament; strategic conventional weapons; IR theory (especially the English School and realism).
Biography
Ben is a Research Fellow in the Department of International Relations. His work focuses on theoretical and historical approaches to the politics of the great powers and the management of nuclear weapons.
His work has been published in journals such as Review of International Studies, Pacific Review, Cooperation and Conflict, Journal of Global Security Studies, Third World Quarterly, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and The Nonproliferation Review. He has also published in media outlets and blogs such as The Straits Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Interpreter, and East Asia Forum.
Before joining ANU in 2016, Ben worked in the UK at the University of Leicester, the Oxford Research Group, and Chatham House. He received his PhD from the University of Birmingham and is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. He is on the editorial board of the journal, Global Change, Peace & Security. In 2018-2019 Ben was a Stanton Junior Faculty Nuclear Security Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Researcher's projects
- Polarity Analysis and Collective Perceptions of Power
- Strategic Conventional Weapons and the Global Nuclear Balance
- Diplomatic and Strategic Implications of the Rise of New Centres of Power
Publications
- Zala, B 2020, 'Regionalism and Great Power Management in the Asia-Pacific: Complementary or Competing Forces?', Asian Studies Review, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 61-78.
- Zala, B 2020, 'Interpreting great power rights in international society: Debating China's right to a sphere of influence', Journal of International Political Theory, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 210-230.
- Zala, B 2019, 'How the next nuclear arms race will be different from the last one', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 75, no. 1, pp. 36-43.
- Futter, A & Zala, B 2019, 'Emerging non-nuclear technology and the future of the global nuclear order', in Bard Nikloas Vik Steen and Olav Njolstad (ed.), Nuclear Disarmament: A Critical Assessment, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, pp. 209-223.
- Zala, B 2019, 'Neither MAD nor even: Looking beyond Trump's Missile Defense Review'.
- Newman, E & Zala, B 2018, 'Rising powers and order contestation: disaggregating the normative from the representational', Third World Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 871-888.
- Zala, B 2017, 'Issues in Australian Foreign Policy: January to June 2017', Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 610-623.
- Zala, B 2017, Nuclear balances and the challenge of advanced conventional weapons in Asia.
- Zala, B 2017, 'Polarity analysis and collective perceptions of power: The need for a new approach', Journal of Global Security Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 2-17pp.
- Zala, B 2017, 'Great power management and ambiguous order in nineteenth-century international society', Review of International Studies, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 367-388.
- Zala, B 2016, 'The Australian 2016 Defence White Paper, great-power rivalry and a "rules-based order": an imagined correspondence between Carr, Bull and Bell', Australian Journal of International Affairs, vol. 70, no. 5, pp. 441-452.
- Futter, A, Zala, B & Moore, G 2015, 'Correspondence: Conventional prompt global strike: Arms racing and strategic stability in a post-unipolar world', The Nonproliferation Review, vol. 22, no. 3-4, pp. 291-299.
- Futter, A & Zala, B 2015, 'Coordinating the arm swing with the pivot: Nuclear deterrence, stability and US strategy in the Asia-Pacific', The Pacific Review, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 367-390.
- Zala, B 2015, 'Strategy in an Era of Rising Powers', The RUSI Journal, vol. 160, no. 6, pp. 12-18.
- Dunn, D & Zala, B 2014, 'Transatlantic relations and US foreign policy', in Inderjeet Parmar, Linda B. Miller, and Mark Ledwidge (ed.), Obama and the World: New Directions in US Foreign Policy, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, pp. 197-218.
- Futter, A & Zala, B 2013, 'Advanced US conventional weapons and nuclear disarmament', Nonproliferation Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 107-122.
- Zala, B 2013, 'The strategic dimensions of water: From national security to sustainable security', in Bruce Lankford, Karen Bakker, Mark Zeitoun, and Declan Conway (ed.), Water Security: Principles, Perspectives and Practices, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, pp. 273-288.
- Zala, B & Rogers, P 2011, 'The 'Other' Global Security Challenges Socioeconomic and Environmental Realities after the War on Terror', The RUSI Journal, vol. 156, no. 4, pp. 26-33.
- Lee, B, Grubb, M, Preston, F et al 2010, 'The United States and climate change: From process to action', in Robin Niblett (ed.), America and a Changed World: A Question of Leadership, Chatham House, London & Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 238-257.
- Zala, B 2010, 'Weighing up the balance: What role for the balance of power in the twenty-first century?', Cooperation and Conflict, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 245-252.
- Zala, B 2007, 'Asia-Pacific: The new nuclear fault line?', Security Challenges, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 9-15.
