Lee joined the Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre on the 1September 2015. Lee is an international relations scholar, educated at the Universities of Lancaster, Birmingham and Hull, receiving his PhD in Politics from the University of Hull (1999), and awarded a Docent in Political Science by Karlstad University in Sweden (2004).

Lee has enjoyed an extensive career working in departments of politics and international relations (Hull and Karlstad universities), politics and communication studies (University of Liverpool), and business school settings (Lincoln and Loughborough universities) in the UK and Sweden. At Bournemouth, he is Programme Leader of the Masters (MSc) in Disaster Management.

Professor Miles is a distinguished scholar, holding Professorships at the universities of Liverpool (2006-2009), Karlstad (2009 – 2017), Loughborough (2011-2015) and now Bournemouth (2015 – ) as well as holding honorary professorial positions at Lancaster and University College London (UCL). Lee has also twice been awarded the prestigious title of Jean Monnet Professor by the European Union (in 2003 (Hull) and in 2004 (Liverpool)) in recognition of his expertise in European foreign policy and crisis management. He has been editor of prestigious peer-reviewed academic journals, including Cooperation and Conflict (2010-2014) and the Journal of Common Market Studies (JCMS) Annual Review (2001-2004), and presently is a member of editorial boards of prominent journals, such as Foreign Policy Analysis.

Lee is an award-winning commentator on disasters in the national/ international media. He featured on Hurricanes Irma and Maria (2017) on premier media outlets, such as (radio): BBC R4 Today Programme, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service News Hour Programme, Good Morning Scotland Programme, Radio Scotland, R4 Austria, BBC Radio London and BBC regional stations, and Talk Radio as well as (TV): BBC News Channel, CNN International, Good Morning Britain (ITV) and STV.