I have spent most of my professional life making sense of situations that resist easy analysis — armed conflicts, clandestine movements, societies under extreme pressure. For over fifteen years I worked on the ground in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Jordan, and Somalia, operating in high-risk environments where access depends on relationships and understanding takes time.

The core of what I do is structured, cross-cultural sense-making: mapping how groups organise, govern, and make decisions — then making that legible to people who want to interact with it. I am equally comfortable advising government ministries, working within UN frameworks, briefing military commanders, or navigating university research ethics boards.

I co-founded First Draft Publishing. My books include An Enemy We Created and The Taliban Reader (Hurst / Columbia University Press).

PhD, War Studies, King’s College London · BA, Arabic & Development Studies, SOAS