Bryan Bender (born 1972) is an American journalist. Bender is the defense editor for POLITICO Pro ; previously a D.C.-based reporter for The Boston Globe and Jane’s Defence Weekly, he covered U.S. military operations in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and the Balkans. He also writes about terrorism, the international arms trade, and government secrecy. He is author You Are Not Forgotten, the story of an Iraq War veteran’s search for a missing World War II fighter pilot in the jungles of New Guinea. He is a board member of the Military Reporters and Editors Association.

He has covered US military operations in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Latin America and his dispatches have covered a range of topics including the war in Afghanistan; veterans; military training; the anti-war movement; the Boston Marathon bombings; the nexus between climate change and national security; and newly declassified government files on Cuba, Vietnam, and the Kennedy Administration.