Michael Wesley is Professor of International Affairs and Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. He has published on Australian foreign policy, Asia’s international relations and strategic affairs, and the Politics of state-building interventions. His book, There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia (2011), was awarded the John Button Prize for the best writing on Australian politics and public policy.

He was Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy from 2009 to 2012 and Professor of International Relations and Director of the Asia Institute at Griffith University from 2004 to 2009. He has also taught at a number of other universities in Australia and overseas. Professor Wesley was an Assistant Director-General in the Office of National Assessments in 2003/04 and served as co-chairman of the Security and Prosperity working group at the Australia 2020 Summit in 2008.

Professor Wesley completed a PhD at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong, and previously worked as a lecturer at the University of New South Wales.