
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


It is High Time for a Fundamental Discussion on British Grand Strategy
by John Bew | Dec 19, 2016
On 7 December, the UK Government published, without great fanfare, its first Annual Report on the 2015 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence & Security Review (SDSR). A summary of the Report was provided a week later, on 15 December, by Britain’s Acting...
US-UK Relations: Reasons for Optimism
by John Bew | Dec 8, 2016
Key points As 2016 draws to a close, it is increasingly clear that Donald Trump’s victory may provide unexpected opportunities for the UK in what remains its most important relationship. There is widespread American support for a US-UK free deal which is shared by the...
Eyes east: how China became a superpower
by John Bew | Sep 21, 2016
The UK may have pipped China to second place in the medal table at the Rio Olympics but we should be under no illusions as to who the big boys are when it comes to global affairs. The British government’s decision to review its plans for the Hinkley Point C nuclear...
John Bew essay on the Chilcot Report
by John Bew | Sep 18, 2016
At 2.6 million words, and seven years in the making, there is no question that the Chilcot Report is comprehensive, if not quite the final word on British involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[8] In one sense, it is an antidote to some of the wilder conspiracy...Support Us
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