Nigel Inkster, working at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) since 2007, is currently Director of Future Conflict and Cyber Security. His research portfolio at IISS has included transnational terrorism, insurgency, transnational organised crime, cyber security, intelligence and security and the evolving character of conflict. He has written and broadcast on all these topics and has also been engaged in a variety of para-diplomatic activities on behalf of the UK government including leading a Sino-UK Track 1.5 Cyber Security Dialogue. He is one of the authors of an IISS Strategic Dossier on the Evolution of the Cyber Domain published in 2015, has written a chapter on The Chinese Intelligence Agencies: Evolution and Empowerment in Cyberspace in China and Cyber Security (Oxford University Press 2015) and is the author of an IISS Adelphi book entitled China’s Cyber Power published in June 2016 by Routledge.

Before joining IISS he served for thirty-one years in the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) retiring at the end of 2006 as Assistant Chief and Director of Operations and Intelligence.

He graduated from St. Johns College Oxford with a BA in Oriental Studies (Chinese). He is married with two children and one grandchild and lives in London.