MWI Adjunct Scholar

Iain King CBE FRSA is a British civilian based at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London.

Iain was the first UK Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previously, he served as defense counsellor at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, where he oversaw defense policy and nuclear cooperation between the United Kingdom and the United States. In earlier roles, Iain led the UK’s portfolio of research on conflict, ran UK efforts to learn lessons from foreign engagements, and was director of programmes at the UK’s overseas democracy support foundation. He pioneered localized stabilization drives in Helmand, Afghanistan; coordinated international civilian work in Benghazi during Libya’s 2011 war; and was the UN’s head of planning in Kosovo soon after NATO’s military intervention. He also spent seven years in the 1990s working on the Northern Ireland peace process.

For his work overseas, he was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2013. He has written five books spanning international intervention, post-war reconstruction, and ethics, including two fiction books rooted in military history for which he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015. He has been featured as a foreign policy analyst on CNN and BBC, and his work has been quoted in multiple outlets and publications. Iain holds an MA from Oxford University in politics, philosophy, and economics and became a research fellow at Cambridge University in 2004.

Iain’s research focuses on modern deterrence, the intersection of philosophy and warfare, and the role of politics in conflict.