Ben Zala is the Manager of the Sustainable Security Programme at ORG. He is also a PhD candidate in International Relations at the University of Birmingham and Editorial Assistant for the academic journal Civil Wars (published by Routledge). He holds a Bachelor of International Relations with first class honours from La Trobe University, Melbourne.

He has previously worked at Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) in the Energy, Environment and Development Programme and the La Trobe University Centre for Dialogue where he was also the editorial assistant for the  journal Global Change, Peace and Security.  He has also previously worked for the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia). He has worked on security issues for a number of years and has published and spoken at conferences on issues of non-traditional security threats, arms control and disarmament and multilateral institutions.