Dr Owen David Thomas (He/Him)

Owen David Thomas  is Associate Professor of International Relations, specialising in Critical Security Studies (CSS) and Secrecy Studies. His research focuses on political accountability and the production of knowledge, examining how societies make sense of, learn from, and seek justice after scandals, crises, and controversies. A unifying theme across his research is a concern with identifying and addressing the systemic sources of disorder and injustice.

Owen’s research includes extensive work on public inquiries as instruments that shape official and public knowledge. He has examined inquiries spanning matters of conflict, security, and domestic governance: from the Mesopotamia Commission and the Iraq War Inquiry to investigations into major disasters and institutional failings within the UK. His work interrogates the epistemological foundations and political dynamics of inquiries, showing how they can help societies confront, but sometimes also obscure, the deeper causes of crisis and failure. Through this research, Owen has advanced a broader critique of any single “gold standard” model of inquiry (such as the judge-led format), arguing that inquiry design and evidentiary practices must remain flexible to enable genuine democratic reckoning with systemic failure. These concerns have also informed his research on freedom of information and state secrecy.

An accomplished interdisciplinary scholar, Owen collaborates across Law, History, Sociology, and Criminology. His research has been published in leading journals, including British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Current Sociology, European Journal of International Relations, International Political Sociology, Review of International Studies, Modern British History, and Security Dialogue.

Other recent work addresses topics such as the “crisis” of the Liberal International Order, a study of public and political understandings of the causes of terrorism and disaster, and the development of a ‘military social-harm’ framework to scrutinise the systemic impacts, accountability gaps and knowledge practices of military power.

Recent funded projects include: Warnings from the Archive: A Century of British Intervention in the Middle East (funded by Leverhulme Trust); A Tale of Two Cities? Elite and Everyday Narratives of Security and Responsibility in the Grenfell and London Bridge killings (funded by British Academy) and Righting corporate wrongs? Extractivism, corporate impunity, and strategic use of law (published in English and Spanish).  He has presented his work in venues including the European Parliament, the Houses of Parliament and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Read more in "Research Activities".

Owen welcomes applications from prospective PhD students. Please go to the 'Education Activities' section for more information about supervision as well as current and former PhD projects.

Owen serves on the editorial board of Critical Military Studies and is a founding member of the Secrecy, Power, and Ignorance Network (SPIN). Owen is a steering committee member of the University's Justice and Violence Studies network

Beyond academia, Owen has served as a Magistrate (Justice of the Peace) in the Adult Criminal Court since 2009.