Dr. Bates Gill is a Non-Resident Senior Policy Fellow with Asia Society Australia where he provides expertise and insights on Chinese and Indo-Pacific politics and security.

Prior to joining the Asia Society Australia, Bates held a number of research and academic leadership positions in the Indo-Pacific, Europe and United States.  Most recently, he was Executive Director of Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis (2022-2024), professor and chair of the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University (2017-2022), and the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence with the Asia Society Australia (2020-2022).  In other previous roles, he served as director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), as the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and as founding director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.

Among his other professional affiliations, Bates is a Senior Associate Fellow with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London and serves on the Board of Governors of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and on the Board of Advisors of the National Bureau of Asian Research.

The author or editor of 12 books on China- and Asia-related topics, his most recent book, Daring to Struggle: China’s Global Ambitions under Xi Jinping was published in 2022 by Oxford University Press.  He has more than 200 other publications and conducted research-related travel to more than 50 countries.  Bates has consulted for corporations, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations, lectured widely and provided U.S. Congressional and other parliamentary testimony related to Asian and global affairs, and made more than 700 appearances in print, broadcast and digital media.

He received his Ph.D. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia, lived and worked in China for two years, and has made more than 60 working visits to the country.  Bates received the Royal Order of the Commander of the Polar Star, the highest award bestowed up foreigners by the Swedish monarch, for his contributions to Swedish interests.