Professor John Bew

John Bew is Professor of History and Foreign Policy at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. He is an internationally-recognised scholar and award-winning author who has served in senior positions at the highest levels of govenrment.

In 2019, Bew joined No10 Downing Street as Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister. He has held that position for five years and through successive administrations, making him one of the longest serving and most senior advisors in Downing Street. In that time, he has gained extensive experience of working with different branches of the British state - from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and National Security Secretariat to the armed forces and agencies - and engaging with other governments and multilateral institutions.

Bew led the No10 team which produced the Integrated Review of Foreign Policy, Defence and Security in 2021 and the Integrated Review Refresh of 2023, both of which led to significant increases in Defence spending. In 2021, he was also selected as the UK's official representative in the NATO Secretary General's Reflections Group, a year-long project which provided recommendations for the future of the alliance and NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept.

As the chief foreign policy advisor in No10, Bew has been intimately involved in the key decisions on UK national security policy for more than half a decade - from defence industrial projects such as AUKUS and the Global Combat Air Programme to advising on UK policy before and after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He has travelled widely with the Prime Minister - and Foreign and Defence Secretaries - both on bilateral visits and for international events such as the UN General Assembly, the NATO Summit, G7, G20, COP and Munich Security Summit.

Bew was instrumental in transforming the Joint Expeditionary Force grouping, which includes ten European nations, from a Defence-led initiative to an annual Leader's Summit - addressing issues European security issues from protecting energy security to undersea cables and maritime readiness. In the period before their accession to NATO, Bew championed the UK offer of bridging security guarantees for Sweden and Finland. He worked closely on the UK's ten-year security agreement with Ukraine, the first agreed by any G7 country, announced by fhe Prime Minister on a visit to Kiev in January 2024. He also played a central role in: the negotiations for the New Atlantic Charter (2021) and Atlantic Declaration for a Twenty-First Century US-UK Economic Partnership (2023) agreed between No10 and the White House to strengthen bilateral ties; the bolstering of cooperation with Japan and South Korea through the Hiroshima Accord and Downing Street Accord, respectively; and the UK’s AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in 2023.

A native of Northern Ireland, Bew was intimately involved in the negotiation of the Windsor Framework, travelling between Brussels, Belfast and Dublin. Following the agreement, he played a central role in the eight month talks process that saw the restoration of devolved institutions in Northern Ireland via the Strengthening the Union deal announced in January 2024.

In addition to being the penholder on two national security strategies, he has been closely involved in the production of command papers and government legislation, covering issues from national security to the future of the Union, and countless Prime Ministerial speeches and op-eds.

Academic career

Bew began his academic career in Cambridge University where he studied at Pembroke College and then became a college lecturer and director of studies in History at Peterhouse. He achieved a First-Class undergraduate degree and the Foundation and Thornton scholarships. Bew then went on to win the Member's Prize for the top-ranked MPhil in Historical Studies, before completing his doctorate on unionist politics and identity in nineteenth-century Belfas. At Cambridge, he published two books - one based on his PhD and the second, Talking to Terrorists, on state approaches to dealing with political violence in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country.

Bew joined King's in 2010, becoming co-director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and then full Professor in 2015. In 2011 he published his acclaimed biography of Lord Castlereagh, which was the lead review in the Times Literary Supplement and named a book of the year in the Wall Street Journal and Spectator.

In 2013-14, Bew became the youngest ever holder of the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy at the John W. Kluge Center at the US Library of Congress. It was there that he completed the research for Realpolitik: A History, subsequently published by Oxford University Press. On the basis of shared historical interests, he built a close relationship with Dr. Kissinger in the last decade of his life. In 2022, Bew worked with Professor Frank Gavin, Lyndsay Howard, Dr. Mattias Hesserus and the Ax:son Johnson Foundation to produce an edition of Kissinger's previously unpublished undergraduate thesis, The Meaning of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toynbee and Kant.

Bew’s fifth book, Citizen Clem: A Life of Attlee (Riverrun and Oxford University Press), was published in 2016. It is his best known work and won three national awards - the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Biography and best non-fiction book in the Parliamentary Book Awards.

Bew's writing has featured in a wide range of British and international outlets, from the Times Literary Supplement and Literary Supplement to the National Interest. He was a contributing writer at the New Statesmanfor almost a decade where he mainly covered international affairs. He has delivered keynote lectures and speeches in numerous institutions from the Sorbonne to Harvard's Belfer Center. He also has extensive experience of broadcast on both television and radio (presenting a number of BBC documentaries) and has been profiled by The Times, Politico, House Magazine and the Washington Diplomat.

Professor Bew has received a number of academic rewards and major grants. In 2014, Bew held a Leverhulme Trust Scholarship and in 2015 he was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Politics and International Studies, which ‘recognises the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising’. In 2017, he won a major Leverhulme grant to support a doctoral training programme on the subject of World Order, alongside Dr. Maeve Ryan.

Current Research Interests 

• History, strategy and statecraft
• Intellectual and diplomatic history
• National security and foreign policy

Bew established the Centre for Grand Strategy at King's with the mission of bringing deeper historical knowledge and "big picture" thinking into strategy, statecraft and diplomacy. He currently serves as a senior advisor for the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy, a multi-institution consortium. He has served on the advisory board for a number of academic journals and is a member of a distinguished professional bodies such as the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Authors and European Council of Foreign Relations. At King's, Bew's teaching is focused on statecraft, grand strategy, diplomacy and national security - in the past, present and future. He was the subject of an impact case study for the last Research Excellence Framework based around his work on shaping UK foreign policy. A major focus of his work will be to build the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy into the premier institution of its type. His research reflects the same focus although he retains a strong interest in the history of ideas and political thought. His most recent academic publications include essays in the Oxford Handbook of Rienhold Niebuhrand Makers of Modern Strategy (Princeton) and as co-editor of the collection, Classics of Applied History. He is contracted for his next book, on the statecraft of international order, with Allen Lane. 

Teaching and Supervision

From the 2024-5 academic year, Prof. Bew will convene two course:

• A BA3 module on Foreign Policy and National Security in the 21st Century.
• An MA module on Grand Strategy, Statecraft and National Security

Professor Bew does not currently supervise BA or MA dissertations and will only consider supervising PhD students with high quality and well-developed proposals.