Bob Bowker retired from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2008 after a 37 year career working mostly on the Middle East. He was posted to Saudi Arabia from 1974 to 1976, and Syria from 1979 to 1981 with short term assignments as Charge d’Affaires in Beirut. He was Australian ambassador to Jordan (1989-1992). He was Director of External Relations and Public Information, and later Senior Adviser, Policy Research of UNRWA in 1997-1998, based in Gaza and Jerusalem. He was the Australian ambassador to Egypt (2005-2008) and non-resident Australian ambassador to Syria, Libya, Tunisia and Sudan. 

He was the DFAT Scholar in Residence at the ANU Centre for Middle East and Central Asian Studies in 1994, and was awarded a PhD at the ANU in 2003. He was the Visiting Reader in the Centre in 2004. Following his retirement from DFAT Bowker returned to the ANU where he was Adjunct Professor from 2008 to 2016, and an Honorary Visiting Fellow from 2017 to 2019. He is now an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the ANU. 

Bowker is the author of six books on Middle East matters, including a professional memoir with his reflections on key issues, Tomorrow There will be Apricots: An Australian Diplomat in the Arab World, which was published in 2022, and which was shortlisted for the 2023 ACT Book of the Year.