John David Brewer HDSSc, MRIA, FRSE, FAcSS, FRSA (born 1951) is an Irish-British sociologist who was the former President of the British Sociological Association (2009–2012), and was Professor of Post Conflict Studies in the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University Belfast (2013–2023), and is now Emeritus Professor in the Mitchell Institute.

Born in Ludlow, Shropshire, England, in 1951, he lived in nearby Cleobury Mortimer until he went to university.

He was Head Boy at Lacon Childe School in Cleobury Mortimer and won the British Sugar Corporation Prize for his A-Levels at Kidderminster College of Further Education.

Most recently he was awarded £1.26 million from the Leverhulme Trust to undertake a five-year study of compromise amongst victims of communal conflict.

[citation needed] Bower is the editor of Can South Africa Survive and Restructuring South Africa, both with Macmillan, and co-editor of The Sociology of Compromise after Conflict (Palgrave); Public Value (Routledge) and the A-Z of Social Research with Sage.