Alastair Campbell joined RUSI after a career spanning more than thirty years in the British Army. He spent 9 years of this time working in Arab capitals in Defence Diplomacy, most recently as Defence Attaché in Baghdad, between 2004-2007, and in Cairo and Kuwait before that.

He joined the Army in 1973 and during his 34 years as an infantry officer he served in several Middle East posts (as well as Germany and Northern Ireland): Oman in the 1970s, Qatar during the first Gulf War and Abu Dhabi just after it. During the 1990s he was heavily involved in Yugoslavia running the Bosnia desk for the UK Delegation at HQ NATO and conducting two operational tours to Zagreb and Sarajevo.

Alastair read Arabic and Islamic History at Oxford in the early 1970s, including a short stint at the FCO school at Shemlan, Lebanon. While at Staff College at Camberley in 1984 he wrote a paper on the Role of Religion in War; and while studying at Leavenworth, USA, in 1992 he completed his thesis on Jihad and Islamic Fundamentalism. More recently he has been a contributor to debates in leading forums both as a speaker and writer on Middle East and humanitarian subjects.

On leaving the Army Alastair worked for the UNHCR in Jordan, covering Syria, Kuwait and Iraq, before taking up his position in Qatar in December 2007.