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.
![Indonesia's Economy Needs More Than A Reboot from Jokowi](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-06/Lowy%20default.png?itok=88wn4Fy7)
![Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/Jokowi%20crowd%20shot%20GettyImages-1136963945cropped.jpg?itok=cOxcP0pZ)
![Hong Kong is not dead, just entering a new phase of struggle](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-06/Lowy%20default.png?itok=88wn4Fy7)
![Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into the Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Australia's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-07/default-commentary-image_0.jpeg?itok=9HMLknn5)
![Brookings Report: Historical tensions and contemporary governance challenges in Southeast Asia: The case of Indonesia](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-06/Lowy%20default.png?itok=88wn4Fy7)
![China has only itself to blame for Australia's move on Hong Kong](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-06/Lowy%20default.png?itok=88wn4Fy7)
![Indonesia: Still caught between trade and protectionism](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/GettyImages-1209812888.jpg?itok=p1WvF89f)
![National security law cannot erase Hong Kong's political awakening](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/expert_publications/public/2022-06/Lowy%20default.png?itok=88wn4Fy7)