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, Liberalism and Liberation: The World Council of Churches and the Global Politics of Human Rights, will appear with Cambridge University Press in 2026. Founded in 1948, the World Council of Churches (WCC) – the main embodiment of the ecumenical movement – was an important voice for human rights as a pillar of the postwar liberal international order. Drawing on extensive archival research, Liberalism and Liberation shows how Christian human rights advocacy underwent a dramatic change over the following decades. Initially, as a primarily Western organization, the WCC was focused on the promotion of religious freedom. Its adoption of the universal language of human rights primarily served the interests of coreligionists and missionaries. In the 1970s, however, a reorientation toward the Third World led the WCC to articulate a “liberationist” approach to human rights. Drawing on liberation theology, developed primarily but not only in Latin America, the ecumenical movement sought to combat racism, right-wing authoritarianism, and international inequality. This history sheds light on the continuing contest over the meaning of human rights.

Bastiaan has held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton University, the Freie Universität Berlin, and the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, in the course of which he developed his new project, “The Rise of Refugee Rights: The Movement to Make Asylum a Human Right, c. 1945-1995.” In 2023, the Dutch Research Council awarded him a Veni talent grant to carry out this project. As the organizer of the international conference “Refugees and the (Global) Cold War,” at the Freie Universität in 2021, Bastiaan is particularly interested in the relationship between the Cold War and the politics of refuge. A special issue on this topic is forthcoming with Cold War History, as is the entry on “Refugees” for the Routledge Encyclopedia of the Cold War. 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.

As a teacher, Bastiaan is part of the core team of the Research MA Modern and Contemporary History, where he coordinates thesis supervision and the Research Seminar. He is also teaches and supervises in the MA International Relations in Historical Perspective and the BA History programs.