John Raine CMG OBE served the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office for 33 years. His overseas postings included Kuwait, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Baghdad and Islamabad. As a senior member of the national security community, John’s bilateral and multilateral diplomatic work involved working extensively with US administrations and the US military on issues related to international coordination and security.

John has been the Senior Advisor on Geopolitical Due Diligence at the IISS since 2017.  His work at the Institute has focused on current major conflicts and in particular the role of non-state actors.  In 2019 he co-edited the IISS Strategic Dossier  “Iran’s Network of Influence” and has written for IISS and other media outlets on the Middle East and the course and consequences of major conflicts. John has worked also extensively as an advisor on geopolitical risk to financial, industrial and third sector entities in Europe, the US and the UK including as a Non Executive Director to HSBC (Middle East).  John is a co-host of the geopolitical podcast One Decision.