Here you’ll find my insights into world affairs and sometimes the culture that sustains the current system. I’m a former British diplomat who resigned over the Iraq War after giving secret evidence to the first official inquiry into the war, evidence that showed that the government had lied over WMD and broken international law.
Since then, I’ve worked on political change all over the world as part of my work with Independent Diplomat, the non-profit diplomatic advisory group I founded. This work has given me unusual insights into all kinds of places, from Syria to the Western Sahara or Kosovo, and has taught me what it’s like to be on the margins of the dominant state system, whether as a leader of a liberation movement or a refugee. So I can offer an insider/outsider perspective.
I have become increasingly convinced of the relevance of anarchism for our current crisis of failing democracy, persistent inequality and climate catastrophe. This blog will explore these ideas. You can find my books on diplomacy and how to create political revolution here. There’s a BBC documentary film about my life and ideas, Accidental Anarchist, which you can see here. I’ve also done a few TED talks.
It is ever more clear that we need a profound shift from the current model of allegedly democratic capitalism. What should that be? Join me in that discovery.
