Colin McInnes holds a personal professorial chair in the Department of International Politics and is academic research lead for the Academi Heddwch Cymru (Wales Peace Academy). He was previously Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation, Dean of the Graduate School and Head of Department. His research concerns the politics of global health, especially relating to governance, security, risk, HIV and AIDS and pandemic preparedness. He has published widely on global health and on security, including 6 single/co-authored books and over 50 refereed articles. He is the lead editor of the Oxford Handbook of Global Health Politics.

Colin is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts. From 2007-2018 he held the UNESCO Chair in HIV/AIDS and Security, and in 2017 he received the Special Achievement Award at the inaugural Wales Social Research Awards, for his ‘outstanding personal achievement in research’.

In 2019, Colin was appointed by the UK Government to chair the UK National Commission for UNESCO, having previously been its Non-Executive Director for Social and Human Sciences. He has represented the UK on UNESCO’s Executive Board, its Social and Human Sciences Commission and at its General Conference. He was on the REF 2014 and REF 2021 panels for Politics and International Studies as well as being an interdisciplinary panel member for REF 2021.

Colin was a lecturer in the Department of War Studies, The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London; and Special Adviser to the House of Commons Defence Committee. He was also Chair of the British International Studies Association; a member of the ESRC’s Strategic Research Board and International Advisory Committee; member of WHO’s expert group on Global Health Diplomacy; and Director of the UK Research Councils’ Security Research Forum.  In 2019 he was a Consultant to the World Health Organisation, developing their framework for civil-military collaboration in health emergencies. Colin currently sits on a range of advisory panels covering various aspects of International Relations and is member of a variety of editorial boards. He advised Public Health Wales on its development of an international health strategy, and the InterAction Council (a group of over 40 former Presidents and Prime Ministers) on global health issues. 

Global health politics, security and governance. Especially risk and health; and use of militaries in health emergencies.

Professor of International Politics