Ben is a Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, the Australian National University. His research explores the role of political leaders in foreign policy decision-making, especially in relation to international development policy. Ben is co-author, with Valerie M. Hudson, of Foreign Policy Analysis: Classic and Contemporary Theory (3rd edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), a leading textbook in the subfield of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). He was an Australian National Fellow at King’s College London in late 2019 and is a research associate at the ANU’s Development Policy Centre.

Prior to academia, Ben worked in the international development sector for a decade as an aid worker, an independent consultant, and a program manager, including three years working on health sector reform in Papua New Guinea. He continues to engage closely with development and foreign policy communities and regularly contributes op-eds to platforms such as Devpolicy Blog, The Conversation, Australian Outlook, New Mandala, and East Asia Forum, as well as to print and online newspapers across the region. 

Foreign policy analysis, foreign policy decision making, international development policy, international relations.