Bastiaan Bouwman is a historian of international relations in the twentieth century. His research is focused on the themes of human rights, humanitarianism, and refugees, in the context of the Cold War, decolonization, and globalization. Based on sources originating not only with states but also with nongovernmental organizations and intergovernmental institutions, he analyzes how the relationship between politics and morality has historically developed, up until the present day.

His first book project, tentatively titled From Liberalism to Liberation: The World Council of Churches and the Postwar Politics of Human Rights, shows how the international ecumenical movement influenced the trajectory of human rights from the 1940s to the 1970s. While the rise of human rights is often seen (and celebrated) as a triumph for secular, universal morality, the book shows how Protestant churches used the concept to promote a Christian agenda. The book also contests, however, the suggestion that the relationship between Christianity and human rights was necessarily marked by conservatism, by showing how the orientation of the World Council of Churches changed dramatically from the 1940s to the 1970s. While ecumenical churches initially endorsed a vision linked to postwar liberal internationalism, shaped especially by Anglo-American priorities, in the 1970s they adopted a radical politics aimed at the 'liberation' of oppressed groups around the world. The book thereby shows how malleable the concept of human rights has been, historically, shedding new light on current contestations of human rights.

As a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, the Freie Universität Berlin, and the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, Bastiaan has also carried out preparatory research into the history of refugees. His new project in this area is focused on the development of refugee rights in the decades following the Second World War. As the organizer of the international conference 'Refugees and the (Global) Cold War', at the Freie Universität in 2021, he is particularly interested in the relationship between the Cold War and the politics of refuge. Bastiaan's work has been published in, among other places, the Journal of Global History, Low Countries Historical Review, and Contemporary European History, which in 2021 awarded him 'Honorable Mention' for its yearly Contemporary European History Prize.