Charles Dunst is deputy director of Research & Analytics at The Asia Group, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a contributing editor of American Purpose. He is the author of Defeating the Dictators: How Democracy Can Prevail in the Age of the Strongman (Hodder & Stoughton, February 2023).

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He has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Foreign Policy, among other outlets. He has appeared on broadcast channels like BBC News, ABC News, and TV Tokyo, and is regularly quoted in outlets like the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and POLITICO. He has briefed officials at the U.S. Department of State and across the U.S. Armed Forces.

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Prior to joining The Asia Group, Dunst was an associate with Eurasia Group's Global Macro practice, focusing on China, Southeast Asia, and Indo-Pacific security. He was also a visiting scholar at the East-West Center in Washington, studying China-Southeast Asia relations. 

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He was previously a foreign correspondent in Southeast Asia (2018-19), reporting from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar for The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, and Haaretz. He covered topics like U.S.-Southeast Asia relations, Chinese influence in the region, and Myanmar's foreign policy. He has also lived in Hungary and England, and reported from Israel and the Palestinian territories, Romania, and Andorra.

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Dunst is a member of CFR's Young Professionals Briefing Series for international relations leaders who have not yet reached the age of thirty to be eligible for CFR term membership and of GLIFAA, which represents LGBT+ personnel working in U.S. foreign affairs.

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He holds an M.Sc. with Distinction in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. with honors in World Politics from Hamilton College, for which he also studied at Hungary's Corvinus University of Budapest. He speaks elementary Khmer (just enough to order kuy teav at a Phnom Penh market) and limited Spanish.