I was a British diplomat for 16 years, working on multiple issues from climate to terrorism and the Middle East. I served in Germany, Norway, Kosovo, the UK Mission to the UN in New York and Afghanistan and as speechwriter for the British foreign secretary.  I was the head of Middle East affairs (especially Iraq) at the UK Mission to the United Nations from '98 to 2002, lived through 9/11, served in Kabul, and was part of the early preparations for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.


In 2004, I secretly testified about the government's lies about WMD and rejection of alternatives to war to the first official inquiry into the war. I resigned from the Foreign Office at the same time. The publication of my testimony led to calls for the full public inquiry into the war, to which I also testified (you can read my testimony here).

I then founded the world's first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat, which works with democratic countries and political movements around the world, helping marginalised countries and groups to access the diplomatic decision-making about their futures.
 In sixteen years as Executive Director, I advised some forty democratic countries, political groups and liberation movements worldwide.

My work and ideas have featured in profiles in the New York Times, The Observer and Die Zeit, among others.  I was the subject of a BBC documentary film, Accidental Anarchist, and I have given two TED talks.  I am a regular commentator on international affairs for LBC, BBC and Al Jazeera English and Arabic.

My intellectual journey has been one of belief in the state and 'liberal' democracy to a realisation that our current crises need more fundamental reform, including bottom-up self-government, shared ownership and mutual aid, what some call anarchism.  I write regular analyses on Substack, books and broadcast videos (on YouTube and TikTok) about the deep structures and forces that drive world events and how anarchism might, just might, solve our many current crises.