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King’s People
Professor Wyn Bowen

Professor Wyn Bowen

  • Academics
  • Supervisors

Professor of Non-Proliferation and International Security

Co-Director of the Freeman Air and Space Institute .

Research subject areas

  • Conflict
  • International relations
  • Policy
  • Security

Contact details

Biography

Wyn Bowen is Professor of Non-proliferation and International Security in the Department of War Studies and Co-Director of the Freeman Air & Space Institute in the School of Security Studies, King's College London. Between 2016 - 2022 he served as Head of the School of Security Studies. Prior to this from 2014 he was Head of Department/Dean of Academic Studies of the Defence Studies Department, based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC) at the UK Defence Academy. Prior to April 2014, he was Director of the Centre for Science and Security Studies (2007-2014). Bowen has been a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies (1995-1997) and a Centre Associate of the Matthew B. Ridgway Centre for International Security Studies, University of Pittsburgh.

Bowen is a William Penney Fellow of the Atomic Weapons Establishment working on issues related to arms control. Bowen was a weapons inspector on several missile teams in Iraq with the UN Special Commission (1997-98) and also worked as a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency on nuclear safeguards issues in the Middle East, North Africa and East Asia. Bowen has been a Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee for inquiries into 'The Decision to go to War with Iraq,' (2003) and 'Weapons of Mass Destruction,' (2000), and served on the Royal Society’s Advisory Committee on the Scientific Aspects of International Security and its Working Group on Nuclear Non-Proliferation. He has been a Trustee of the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC).

Research

  • Nuclear and missile proliferation and non-proliferation
  • Nuclear proliferation behaviour
  • Arms control
  • Deterrence and strategic stability
  • Coercive diplomacy
  • US security policy
  • International efforts to prevent chemical weapons use in the Syrian civil war
  • Global WMD threat reduction
  • Libyan nuclear programme (pre-2004)
  • Iranian nuclear programme

Teaching and Supervision

  • History and Politics of Arms Control (PGT)
  • Arms Control Case Studies (PGT)
  • Theory and Practice of Deterrence (PGT)
  • PhD supervision on issues related to research interests (as above)

Publications

  • "The Obama Administration and Syrian Chemical Weapons: Deterrence, Compellence, and the Limits of the 'Resolve plus Bombs' Formula", (with Jeff Knopf and Matthew Moran) Security Studies (2020), Vol.29, Issue 5. Open Access at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09636412.2020.1859130
  • Trust in Nuclear Disarmament Verification (with Hassan Elbahtimy, Christopher Hobbs and Matthew Moran) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) (ISBN 978-3-319-40987-0), 176pp.
  • Living on the Edge: Iran and the Practice of Nuclear Hedging (with Matthew Moran and Dina Esfandiary) (Palgrave Macmillan, May 2016) (ISBN 978-1-137-27308-6), 189pp.
  • The Global Partnership against WMD: Success and Shortcomings of G8
  • Threat Reduction since 9/11 (with Alan Heyes and Hugh Chalmers) (Taylor and Francis, September 2011), 133pp (ISBN 0855161787).
  • Libya and Nuclear Proliferation: Stepping Back from the Brink, (Routledge, 2006), 103pp (ISBN 0-415-41238-2).
  • The Politics of Ballistic Missile Non-proliferation (Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000) 276pp (ISBN 0312226187).
  • American Security Policy in the 1990s: Beyond Containment (with David H. Dunn) (Dartmouth, 1996) 202pp (ISBN 1855216159).
  • ‘Radiological Terrorism: Is There a Role for Deterrence?’ (with Jasper Pandza) in Andreas Wegner and Alex Wilner (eds), Deterring Terrorism: Theory and Practice (Stanford University Press, 2012). (ISBN 10: 0804782490).
  • ‘Deterrence and Asymmetry: Non-State Actors and Mass Casualty Terrorism’, Contemporary Security Policy, 25 (April 2004) (ISSN 13523260).

Visit Bowen's PURE Profile for more publications.

Expertise and Public Engagement

Bowen served as a weapons inspector on several ballistic missile inspection teams in Iraq with the UN Special Commission (1997-98) and worked as a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency on nuclear safeguards issues in the Middle East, North Africa and East Asia (2001-7). He served as a Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee for inquiries into 'The Decision to go to War with Iraq,' (2003) and 'Weapons of Mass Destruction,' (2000). Bowen has worked extensively with government departments on the provision of security-related education and training, as well as research and advice.

Bowen has served on the Royal Society’s Advisory Committee on the Scientific Aspects of International Security and the Royal Society’s Working Group on Nuclear Non-Proliferation. He was a Trustee of the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC) and a member of the Advisory Board of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Journal. He was founding co-editor of the journal Defence Studies (Taylor and Francis).