John Bew

 

John Bew CMG is Professor in History and Foreign Policy at King's College London and from 2013 to 2014 held the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the John W. Kluge Center. In October 2024, he became distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and Distinguished Advisor to the Australian National Security College.

 

Bew has served in senior positions at the highest levels of the UK government. He spent over five years as the chief Foreign Policy Advisor in No.10 Downing Street, working for four Prime Ministers and through two general elections. He was the penholder on the last two UK national security strategies and intimately involved in the foreign policy challenges of that period, from the creation of AUKUS to the war in Ukraine.

 

He has worked across the aisle, serving both Conservative and Labour administrations and moving from a political appointee to a civil service role.

 

In 2021, he also served as the UK's expert representative to the NATO secretary general's Reflections Group, which provided recommendations for the alliance's 2022 Strategic Concept.

 

In 2019, Bew joined the Number 10 Policy Unit under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, continuing to serve as foreign policy advisor under successive Prime Ministers Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak. In 2023, the New Statesman described Bew as "the great survivor of Downing Street". It has been said that his book on realpolitik helped shared government policy over this time.

 

As a biographer of Clement Attlee and former writer at the New Statesman, he is widely regarded as a bipartisan rather than party political figure. Former National Security Advisor Lord Ricketts describes his strength as “applying historical expertise to modern policymaking, using the lessons of the past, and using the strategies of previous statesmen to inform the way governments do strategic work now”. According to David Liddington, chair of the Royal United Services Institute, “He's somebody certainly I think that would feel at home equally working for an Atlanticist, strong, pro-defence Labour ministry, as well as for the Conservative equivalent.”

 

Following the 2024 general election, he was asked to stay in government by the Keir Starmer administration, working on defence and security issues. He travelled with the new Prime Minister to the NATO Summit in Washington DC, was sent to Ukraine on behalf of the Prime Minister and helped launch the Strategic Defence Review.

 

John Bew (born 1980) is an internationally recognized historian and a senior foreign policy advisor who has served at the highest levels of the British government.

 

Current Roles (2026)

Academic: Professor of History and Foreign Policy at King’s College London, where he leads the Centre for Grand Strategy.

Government Advisory: Following a long tenure under Conservative prime ministers, he was re-appointed by the Labour government to lead the development of the National Security Strategy 2025.

Think Tanks: He is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior advisor at the Australian College of National Security.

 

Key Career Achievements

Political Advisor: Served as the chief Foreign Policy Advisor in No. 10 Downing Street for over five years (2019–2024), working under four Prime Ministers (Johnson, Truss, Sunak, and Starmer).

Policy Architect: He was the primary author (penholder) for the last three UK National Security Strategies, including the 2021 Integrated Review.

NATO Representative: Appointed as the UK's representative to the NATO Secretary General's Reflections Group for the 2022 Strategic Concept.

 

Notable Publications

He is the author of five books, focusing on statecraft and political history:

Citizen Clem (2016): An award-winning biography of Clement Attlee, which won the Orwell Prize.

Realpolitik: A History (2015): A definitive exploration of the concept of realpolitik.

Castlereagh: A Life (2011): A biography of the 19th-century statesman Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh.

 

Personal Background

Origins: Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland; the son of the historian and peer Paul Bew.

Honors: Appointed Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 2025 for his services to British foreign policy