 He has written widely on Soviet and Russian politics, on communist politics more generally, on the Cold War, and on political leadership.Brown was born in Annan, Scotland, and educated at Annan Academy and at Dumfries Academy, before studying as both undergraduate and graduate student at the London School of Economics (LSE).He taught at the University of Glasgow from 1964 to 1971, during which time he was a British Council exchange scholar at Moscow State University for the academic year 1967-68.