David Held was born in 1951 in Britain where he spent most of his childhood. He was educated in Britain, France, Germany and the United States. He has held numerous Visiting Appointments in the United States, Australia, Canada and Spain, among other places. In the last five years he has lectured regularly on questions of democracy, international justice and globalization to audiences in many countries.

David Held's main research interests include rethinking democracy at transnational and international levels and the study of globalization and global governance. He has strong interests both in political theory and in the more empirical dimensions of political analysis. He is currently Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics.

Two decades ago David Held co-founded Polity, which is now a major presence in social science and humanities publishing. Among his recent major works are: Globalization/Anti-Globalization co-author (2002), fully revised 2nd edition (2007), Global Covenant: The Social Democratic Alternative to the Washington Consensus (2004) and Cosmopolitanism: A Defence (2003).