Dr Steve Hewitt MA, PhD

Dr Steve Hewitt

Department of History
Senior Lecturer in American and Canadian Studies

Contact details

Address
Arts Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I’m a British/Canadian academic interested in security and intelligence in the past and present and in a US/UK/Canada context.  My work has covered a range of topics, such as state surveillance against Canadian universities, UK and US counter-terrorism, a history of informants, and the world's most famous police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 

Qualifications

  • BA (Wilfrid Laurier)
  • MA, PhD (University of Saskatchewan

Biography

I did my graduate work at the University of Saskatchewan and taught there and at the University of Indianapolis before coming to Birmingham. I’ve written several books and articles related to security and intelligence, such as the history of Canadian policing and security, counter-terrorism in the UK since 9/11, and the use of informers by the police and intelligence services. Due to the nature of my work, I’ve appeared extensively in the media, including on BBC Radio and Television, CBC Television and Radio.

Teaching

  • Introduction to Canadian Studies (1st year)
  • Research Skills (1st year)
  • Canada and the U.S. Compared (2nd year)
  • Terrorism in America: A History (2nd year)
  • America in the World: Hard and Soft Power since 1945 (2nd year)
  • U.S. Intelligence and International History Since 1945 (2nd year)
  • U.S. Foreign Policy and Terrorism (final year and post-grad)
  • Anti-Americanism (final year and post-grad)

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Hewitt is interested in supervising doctoral research on topics related to security and intelligence, counter-terrorism including domestic counter-terrorism in the UK and US, anti-Americanism and Canadian history and politics.


Find out more - our PhD History  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Counter-terrorism and terrorism

One of my current teaching and research interests relates to counterterrorism and terrorism. My book The British War on Terror: Terrorism and Counterterrorism on the Home Front since 9-11 was published in January 2008. I have also done research related to American counterterrorism policy, specifically the State Department's Rewards for Justice program, the origins of which lie in 1984 and the Reagan administration. This interest emanates from research on state informers that I describe below. I am currently interested in working on a history of domestic British counter-terrorism. 

Security and intelligence

In January 2010, my new history of informers was published. Even before September 11, books and popular culture have focused on technology as being the chief threat to civil liberties through state and private surveillance. Lost in the shuffle has been the human factor, namely the reality that some individuals actively assist the state, be it in police forces or intelligence services, by supplying information on others. The book is entitled Snitch!: A History of the Modern Intelligence Informer. My previous work looked at the history of state surveillance in a Canadian context, in particular the spying by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at Canadian universities for over eighty years.

Canadian security and intelligence and Canadian studies

In collaboration with Professor Christabelle Sethna of the Institute of Women’s Studies at the University of Ottawa, I am working on a project entitled “Sex Spying” that will investigate state surveillance in Canada of women’s organizations from the 1960s until the 1980s. We are currently under contract by McGill-Queen's University Press to produce a monograph on the topic. Eventually, we hope to broaden this project into a comparative examination of state surveillance of women’s organizations in both Canada and the U.S.

Anti-Americanism

As a Canadian I am, according to historian Frank Underhill, "the first anti-American, the model anti-American, the archetypal anti-American, the ideal anti-American as he exists in the mind of God." Thus, by birth I have an interest in this topic, as I do with the wider nature of Canadian-American relations. Of particular interest to me in terms of research is not just anti-Americanism, but the negative response by some in the United States or elsewhere to criticism of the U.S. I call this anti-Anti-Americanism (© Steve Hewitt) and I am interested in the gendered and ideological nature of this backlash against the backlash.

Other activities

In April 2011, I became the president of the British Association for Canadian Studies.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Sethna, C & Hewitt, S 2018, Just watch us: RCMP surveillance of the women's liberation movement in Cold War Canada. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston. <https://www.mqup.ca/just-watch-us-products-9780773552821.php>

Hewitt, S 2010, SNITCH!: A History of the Modern Intelligence Informer. Continuum.

Article

Hewitt, S 2019, '"Happy-go-lucky Fellow": lone-actor terrorism, masculinity, and the 1966 bombing on Parliament Hill in Ottawa', The Canadian Historical Review, vol. 100, no. 1, pp. 46-68. https://doi.org/10.3138/chr.2017-0117

Hewitt, S 2017, 'Cold war counter-terrorism: the evolution of international counter-terrorism in the RCMP security service, 1972-1984', Intelligence and National Security, pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2017.1323833

Hewitt, S 2011, 'Three Lessons the United Kingdom Can Teach the United States about Counterterrorism', Journal of the National Security Forum, vol. 37, pp. 5294-5305.

Hewitt, S 2009, 'Clandestine Operations: The Vancouver Women's Caucus, the Abortion Caravan, and the RCMP', The Canadian Historical Review, vol. 90, no. 3, pp. 463-496. https://doi.org/10.3138/chr90.3.463

Hewitt, S 2008, ''Strangely Easy to Obtain': Canadian Passport Security, 1933-73', Intelligence and National Security, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 381-405. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684520802137014

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Hewitt, S 2021, ‘September 12 thinking’: the missing histories of counterterrorism. in R English (ed.), The Cambridge History of Terrorism . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 503-523. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108556248.020

Hewitt, S 2015, Forgotten surveillance: Covert Human Intelligence Sources in Canada in a Post-9/11 World. in M Geist (ed.), Law, privacy and surveillance in Canada in the post-Snowden era. University of Ottawa Press , pp. 45-67.

Hewitt, S 2012, "He who controls the present, controls the past": The Canadian Security State's Imperfect Censorship under the Access to Information Act . in K Walby & M Larsen (eds), Brokering Access: : Power, Politics and Freedom of Information Process in Canada . University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, pp. 194-208. <http://www.ubcpress.ca/search/title_book.asp?BookID=299173819>

Hewitt, S & Sethna, C 2012, Sex Spying: The RCMP Framing of English- Canadian Women’s Liberation Groups During the Cold War. in L Campbell, D Clément & G Kealey (eds), Debating Dissent: : Canada and the 1960s . University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp. 135-154.

Hewitt, S 2010, American Counter-Terrorism through the Rewards for Justice Program, 1984-2009. in A Siniver (ed.), International Terrorism Post-9/11: : Comparative Dynamics and Responses (Comtemporary Terrorism Studies). Routledge, London, pp. 83-100.

Hewitt, S & Lucas, S 2009, All the Secrets that Are Fit to Print? The Media and US Intelligence Agencies Before and After 9/11. in R Dover & M Goodman (eds), Spinning Intelligence: : Why Intelligence Needs the Media, Why the Media Needs Intelligence . C Hurst and Co Publishers Ltd, London, pp. 105-116.

Book/Film/Article review

Hewitt, S 2011, 'Island of Shame: The Secret History of the US Military Base on Diego Garcia', Contemporary British History, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 617-618. https://doi.org/10.1080/13619462.2011.625813

Working paper

Hewitt, S 2021 '“One-man war”: a history of lone-actor terrorism in Canada, 1868- 2018' Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS), Canada, pp. 1-68.

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

American, British, and Canadian security and intelligence in the past and present, including counter-terrorism, policing, spying and surveillance in the form of human intelligence through informants and undercover agents; Canadian history and politics; anti-Americanism

Media experience

Steve has extensive experience as a commentator for the UK media, including on radio and television. Steve also regularly acts as a commentator for the Canadian media. This includes a wide range topics relating to security and intelligence, such as the history of Canadian policing and security, counter-terrorism in the UK since 9/11, and the use of informers by the police and intelligence services.

Alternative contact number available for this expert: contact the press office

Expertise

  • Security services
  • Counter terrorism and terrorism
  • American-Canadian relations
  • Anglo-Canadian relations
  • Canadian history and politics
  • Surveillance