Ben Bland
Southeast Asian politics and foreign policy; South China Sea; regional economic trends; China-ASEAN relations; Indonesia; Malaysia; Vietnam; Hong Kong
![Ben Bland](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/ben-bland.jpg)
Ben Bland is the director of the Asia-Pacific program at Chatham House. His research focuses on the nexus of politics, economics and international relations in Southeast Asia, as well as China’s growing role in the broader region and the contours of US-China strategic competition.
He was previously Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute.
Ben is the author of Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia (Penguin Random House, 2020), the first English language political biography of Indonesia’s president, and Generation HK: Seeking Identity in China’s Shadow (Penguin Random House, 2017).
At the Lowy Institute, he also wrote analysis papers examining the state of Indonesian democracy and the potential for the Australia-India-Indonesia trilateral relationship, among other research projects.
Ben regularly writes opinion pieces for and provides expert comment to a wide range of international media organisations, including Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, the New York Times, Nikkei Asia and Reuters.
Before joining the Lowy Institute, Ben was an award-winning foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, with postings in Jakarta, Hanoi and Hong Kong and experience reporting across China and Southeast Asia over the previous decade. He has an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and an undergraduate degree in History from the University of Cambridge.
Ben’s position was supported by the Lowy Institute’s Engaging Asia Project, which was established with the financial support of the Australian government.
![ASEAN muddles through on Myanmar](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/GettyImages-1179901373.jpg?itok=sPqCtGwn)
![Beyond Fortress Australia](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-10/thumb.jpg?itok=QS1_kUQf)
![Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Australia’s Response to the Coup in Myanmar](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-06/Lowy%20default.png?itok=88wn4Fy7)
![UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt – not just for the good times](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/Dominic%20Raab%20ASEAN.jpg?itok=_1DWAcrL)
![Building stronger Australia-Indonesia ties](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/36222856291_723ec99b45_o.jpg?itok=kxNFiy_9)
![Lowy Institute Conversations: Elizabeth Becker on women and war reporting in Vietnam](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-06/Lowy%20default.png?itok=88wn4Fy7)
![Indonesia raises ASEAN’s bar on Myanmar](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/GettyImages-1232492200%20copy.jpg?itok=ZzBJXuKj)
![Time for talk is over: Australia must take a greater role in tackling Myanmar crisis](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-06/Lowy%20default.png?itok=88wn4Fy7)
![Lowy Institute Conversations: Nathan Law on exile, China and the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/Logo_publication%20page.png?itok=pLMYj-Th)