Dr. Bates Gill is Executive Director of Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. Prior to joining the Asia Society, Bates held a number of research and academic leadership positions in the Indo-Pacific, Europe and United States. Most recently, he was professor and chair of the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University in Sydney and was also the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence with the Asia Society Australia. 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 serves on the Board of Governors of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, on the Board of Advisors of the National Bureau of Asian Research, and is a Senior Associate Fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London.

The author or editor of nine 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 received his Ph.D. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia, lived and worked in China and Taiwan for three 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.