
John Bew
Head of Britain in the World
0207 3402650
John Bew heads Policy Exchange’s Britain in the World Project, launched by the Secretary of State for Defence in March 2016, and coordinates its work on foreign policy. He is Professor of History and Foreign Policy in the War Studies department at King’s College London, where he leads the Grand Strategy Programme. He was the youngest-ever holder of the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy at the John W. Kluge Center, US Library of Congress, and in 2015 won the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Politics and International Relations. Other previous positions included Co-Director of theInternational Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence; and Lecturer in Modern British History, Harris Fellow, and Director of Studies at Peterhouse, Cambridge University. He is the author of numerous academic articles, and five books on history and contemporary statecraft, including Realpolitik: A History (2016), and Citizen Clem: A Life of Atlee (2016). He is a contributing writer at the New Statesman, covers the release of state papers for the Irish Times, and writes regularly for many other publications in the UK and United States.

Related Posts & Publications


The new US National Security Strategy: implications for UK National Security Policy
by John Bew | Dec 17, 2017
Speaking at the launch of Policy Exchange’s new Anglo-American project in Washington DC last week, the US National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster offered a preview of some of the key concepts underscoring the new US National Security Strategy (NSS), launched...
Remaking the Case for NATO
by John Bew | Jul 9, 2018
Read Publication The UK cannot be complacent about the continuing existence of NATO: a world without the alliance would be even more fractious and less secure, while giving up on NATO would be “whimsical, reckless, self-harming and self-defeating”, argues a new Policy...
The return of the internationalists? Unpacking Labour’s position on foreign policy.
by John Bew | Nov 3, 2017
Last week, Chuka Umunna spoke to Chatham House in a much-needed intervention on the state of British foreign policy. While it may not endear him to Labour’s leadership team, it confirmed that he remains a serious force on the backbenches. In a reminder of why he was...
In Defence of Collective Security
by John Bew | Mar 19, 2018
Read Publication As Vladimir Putin celebrates another election victory, today’s Labour party should remember that there can be no coherent response to the Skripal affair without an appreciation of how our collective security is underscored by NATO and the role their...Support Us
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