Bates Gill

Dr. Bates Gill has a 30-year international career as a think tank leader, policy advisor, consultant, author, media commentator, and public speaker. An academically-trained and internationally-respected specialist on China and Indo-Pacific affairs, he has led a global top-ten think tank, directed research centers at world-leading universities and public policy research institutions in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and consulted for governments, businesses, and philanthropies.

He is currently a Senior Fellow in Asian Security with the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR, Seattle and Washington, D.C.). He is also a Non-Resident Policy Fellow with Asia Society Australia, a Senior Associate Fellow with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, London), and Honorary Professor with the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University (where he was previously professor and head of department). He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS, Singapore), is a member of the International Council of Advisors for the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies, and sits on the NBR Board of Advisors.

In previous roles he served as inaugural Executive Director of the Center for China Analysis with the Asia Society, Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an Associate Fellow with the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House, London), the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, D.C.), and founding Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution (Washington, D.C.).

Bates is the author or editor of 12 books on China- and Asia-related topics, including, most recently, Daring to Struggle: China’s Global Ambitions under Xi Jinping (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Bates draws his insights from extensive travels and networks around the world, built from his global work experience spanning from Washington, D.C. to Europe, to China and across Asia to Australia. Truly a global citizen, he has traveled to 60 countries for his research and speaking engagements, while living and working for three years in China and Taiwan, 12 years in Europe (France, Sweden, Switzerland), 12 years in Australia, as well as in the United States.

Among his international honors, Dr. Gill holds the Royal Order of the Commander of the Polar Star (post-nominal: KNO), the highest chivalric order bestowed upon foreigners by the Swedish monarch, for his contributions to Swedish interests.

In 2024-25, Bates will divide his time mostly between Sydney, New York, Washington, D.C., Geneva, and Ashland, Oregon