Prof Colin McInnes BSc(Econ), PhD

Colin McInnes is a Pro Vice-Chancellor and holds a personal professorial chair in the Department of International Politics. He 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’.

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 2014 he was appointed Non-Executive Director of the UK National Commission (UKNC) for UNESCO, with special responsibility for the Social and Human Sciences, and was appointed its Chair in 2019-22 by the Secretary of State for International Development.  He represented the UK on UNESCO’s Executive Board and on its Social and Human Sciences Commission.  In 2019 he was a Consultant to the World Health Organisation, developing their framework for civil-military collaboration in health emergencies, and continues to work closely with the WHO. 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. 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.

He has published widely on global health issues and on security. His most recent research addresses the sociology of risk and global health. He is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook on Global Health Politics.

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

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation)

Professor of International Politics