Ashley Townshend is Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He works on international security and strategic affairs with a focus on the Asia-Pacific, including maritime security, alliance politics, and US, Chinese, and Australian foreign policy.

Previously, Ashley was a Research Associate at the Lowy Institute, and a Visiting Lecturer and Senior Tutor in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Fudan University, Shanghai; an Instructor on the Warrior-Scholar Project at Yale University; and a Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University. He completed his studies at the University of Oxford, Peking University, Sciences Po, Paris, and the University of Sydney.