John Bew

About

Professor John Bew CMG is a distinguished academic and award-winning author who has served at the highest levels of the British government, working across the political aisle. He has been the penholder on the last three UK national security strategies and was closely involved in shaping the most recent NATO Strategic Concept. In 2025 he was appointed Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George for his services to British foreign policy.

In 2019, Bew joined No10 Downing Street as Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, holding that position for over five years. Uniquely for a No10 appointee, he served through two general elections and for four Prime Ministers. He was intimately involved in the key decisions on UK national security policy in this period, negotiated several international agreements and travelled round the world with the Prime Minister, attending successive summits and meetings of the UN General Assembly, NATO, G7 and G20. Following his return to academia, he was re-appointed by the Labour government again to lead work on National Security Strategy 2025: Security for the British people in a dangerous world.

Bew is the author of five books, including Realpolitik: A History, Castlereagh: A Life, and many academic articles and edited collections. His best-known work is his biography of Clement Attlee which won three national awards, including the prestigious Orwell Prize. In 2012, he became the youngest ever holder of the Henry A. Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress and in 2015 he won the Philip Leverhulme Prize for International Studies. He is currently a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, professor of history and foreign policy at King’s College London and senior advisor at the Australian College of National Security. Bew began his academic career at Cambridge University.