He holds a First Class B.A. Honours degree (1995) from the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford where he also completed his PhD in September 2001. Between July 1998 and December 2001 he served as an Advisor to the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs in Geneva during negotiations to strengthen the BWC. In January 2002 Dr Littlewood joined the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies at the University of Southampton. In January 2005 he was seconded to the Counter-Proliferation Department of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office as an Advisor on biological weapons controls, completing that service in April 2007.