Jeremy Bowen, UCL History graduate and one of the BBC’s most enduring journalistic voices, has spent more than 40 years helping the nation make sense of a turbulent world.
Jeremy Bowen was the BBC’s Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem between 1995 and 2000 and the BBC Middle East editor from 2005 to 2022. Since 2022 he has held the position of International Editor at BBC News.
Jeremy grew up in Cardiff and, following a gap year working on a yacht and in a pub, he arrived at UCL in 1979 to study history.
While here, he was able to take courses from across the University of London, choosing courses in Russian, Soviet Union and US history alongside British history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and London School of Economics. This variety started his lifelong interest in international affairs.
My undergraduate studies still stand me in good stead now. I wrote something recently about the formation of NATO and the Truman Doctrine – yes, it’s history but it’s very much still topical, given recent events. Of course, I’ve read a lot more since, but what I was able to learn at UCL has greatly informed my work.
Like many students today, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. London was expensive and Jeremy often worked part-time on building sites to clear his overdraft at the end of each term. The sudden switch from a comprehensive school to very independent learning was also a steep transition, and he didn’t really hit his stride until his final year.
My best year was probably my third year because by then I had realized that the way you get the most out of studying history is to actually read a lot of books and write essays. I wish I'd known sooner.
Following completion of his BA in 1989, he did a master’s in International Affairs at the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University, majoring in American Foreign Policy.
Jeremy has now been at the BBC for 42 years. The stories he covered early in his career were formative and still some of the most significant for him, including the former Yugoslavia wars in 1991-95, the war in Kosovo in 1999 and the first Gulf War in 1991, his breakthrough story when he was just 31.
He views his work today as focused on “weaving in analysis and context in the reportage of events”. Jeremy has also published numerous books, and he will be releasing an updated version of his acclaimed bestseller The Making of the Modern Middle East in June. He became a fellow of UCL in 2005 and has been involved in panel events for UCL’s Disagreeing Well programme.
After a long career, he never underestimates the importance of his role.
We have a huge audience, hundreds of millions of people in the UK and around the world, and I'm very conscious of that. I find it a real privilege to be the person who is trying to analyse, report, interpret, and explain some of the massive things happening in a very turbulent world.
