Owen Moelwyn-Hughes

Owen Moelwyn-Hughes is an innovative college lecturer with considerable experience in academic leadership and administration, and curriculum design and development.  He has a keen interest in political governance, international affairs, human rights and international law.  He has been an outstanding Head of Politics at leading independent schools Marlborough College and the King’s School Canterbury, and as Head of Sixth Form.

Owen has a strong interest in global politics and academic enrichment.  He has organised outstanding conferences on global affairs hosted at Chatham House, the Royal United Services Institute and the Frontline Club.  His annual  Methods and Madness: An Intro to Modern Conflict has focused on conflicts in the Balkans, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Sudan, and a recent instalment was hosted at the UK Defence Academy in conjunction with the King’s College Defence Studies Department.  He has also run academic events in partnership with the University of Kent’s Global Europe Centre on Brexit.  Owen’s talks and programs have featured eminent speakers, who have ranged from Secretaries of State, Attorney General, Chief of the General Staff, Deputy Director General of the UN, Assistant Director General of NATO, Assistant Chief  at SIS, Strategy Director at No 10, ambassadors, academics and journalists.  A recent initiative has been partnering with RUSI’s Modern Deterrence Program, which has seen his students involved in their annual conference and conducting on-line interviews with senior NATO officials, including the Commander of KFOR and the Assistant Secretary General for NATO Political Affairs.  He has run Politics Trips  to destinations varying from Washington DC to South Africa and Cuba. 

Owen has a lively and rigorous teaching style, and has experience of running on-line teaching programs having just delivered enrichment courses on ‘Conflict, War and Terrorism’; ‘Threats to Democracy’; ‘Plato to NATO: A History of Political Thought’ and ‘The Political Impact of Pandemics’.  He talks regularly on political developments, global issues and military history.

Owen holds a  Master of Studies in Modern History from Exeter College, Oxford, and is a graduate of the University of Natal Pietermaritzburg, South Africa with a BA and an LLB.  He was involved with Lawyers for Human Rights and was an Election Monitor for the IEC in South Africa’s first free and fair elections in 1994.  He grew up in Johannesburg and was at school at St. John’s College.  Owen maintains close links and ties with South Africa.