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).

Ben is a Research Fellow in the Department of International Relations. His work focuses on the politics of the great powers, international security issues, and International Relations theory.

Ben has published on issues of global order, security in the Asia-Pacific region, and nuclear weapons in journals such as Review of International Studies, Pacific Review, Cooperation and Conflict, and The Nonproliferation Review. He has also published in media outlets and blogs such as the South China Morning Post, the Sydney Morning Herald, OpenDemocracy, and World Politics Review, and has contributed evidence to a number of Select Committee inquiries in the UK on issues of global security. Ben is an advisor to the Oxford Research Group’s Sustainable Security Programme.

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 in 2013 from the University of Birmingham and is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. He has previously taught courses on IR theory, rising powers, foreign policy analysis, and strategic studies.

• 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