Owen is a freelance journalist and writer. A former BBC correspondent and presenter he has been a resident foreign correspondent in Bucharest, Geneva, Islamabad, Hanoi and Beirut. He is currently working on a history of the Bhutto dynasty and an analysis of the global Deobandi movement. Both books will be published by Yale University Press.
He has already published two books. His history of Pakistan: Pakistan: Eye of the Storm is now in its third edition. Target Britain, a thriller set amid the war on terror is available in paperback. In 2004 he contributed to the Lonely Planet guide, Pakistan and the Karakoram Highway.
His writing for the London Review of Books has concentrated on Pakistan, the Iranian militant group MEK (also known as the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran), the Deobandi movement and Northern Ireland. He has also written and broadcast extensively on the Pakistani political party the MQM. His columns for Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper Dawn cover Pakistani and international affairs.