Bethan Greener

Bethan Kirstie Greener, also known as Beth Greener-Barcham, is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at Massey University, specialising in international security. As of 2024 she is the head of the School of People, Environment and Planning.

Academic career

Greener had been interested in how countries provide security for people since childhood, and says her awareness of events such as the Cold War, the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior and the 1991 Gulf War helped form that interest. She completed a master's in political science at the University of Canterbury in 2000, with a thesis on counter-terrorism in New Zealand. In 2004 she completed her PhD at the Australian National University, with a thesis titled Liberalism and the use of force: a means to an end?. Greener then joined the faculty of Massey University, rising to full professor from 2022.

Greener's research focuses on international security, the role of the military and the police, and attitudes towards women in combat roles. She has worked with the New Zealand Army, the United Nations Police and the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. She has been part of two Marsden grant teams, including as an associate investigator on the 2008 grant Building sustainable peace in the South Pacific, and served on a Marsden grant assessment panel in 2019. As of 2017 she was working on a book on private security forces.

Selected works