
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


US House of Representatives reaffirms bipartisan commitment to NATO’s Article 5: Could the UK Parliament follow suit?
by John Bew | Jul 9, 2017
The boring reality of international diplomacy is that much of the heavy lifting takes away from high-level summits, podiums and presidential addresses in front of carefully assembled audiences in foreign lands. Of course, the amateur body language analysts were out in...
Merkel’s harsh words on Brexit played to her German audience – but the UK should still take note
by John Bew | Jun 5, 2017
Germans have elections, too. It was at a campaign event in Bavaria that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, made a statement that has been interpreted as having grave implications for the cohesiveness of the Euro-Atlantic alliance. “The times in which we could...
After the general election, we need to re-define our national interest for a changing world
by John Bew | Jun 5, 2017
As the world changes around us, Britain needs a serious debate about what constitutes its national interest that goes beyond Brexit negotiations. The focus on Jeremy Corbyn’s past views on national security have detracted attention from the fatal incoherence in his...
Why Jeremy Corbyn is not part of the Clement Attlee internationalist tradition within Labour
by John Bew | May 15, 2017
Read Article A shorter version of this article appeared on Capx. A noble tradition of liberal internationalism has pumped blood to the heart of the Labour Party since its foundation and is an essential part of the Labour story. As a biographer of Clement Attlee, I can...Support Us
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