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Mike sets the company’s strategic direction and personally leads all client work. Based in Dubai, he divides his time between the UAE, the UK, Canada.

He founded CKS after working on complex problems of evidence and analysis for more than 20 years - a career defined by commitments to the rule of law, public service, professional practice and scholarly inquiry.

An elected fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Historical Society, Mike holds B.A. and M.A degrees in history, a Ph.D. in political science from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and a Graduate Diploma in Law from Birkbeck.

SERVICE EXPERIENCE

Mike’s service profile has included periods of uniformed military service, and civilian service with NATO and the United Nations.

▶ He spent seven years in early career military service with Canadian Army infantry units and on other duties. He deployed on operations twice to Bosnia-Herzevogina.

▶ While deployed in uniform, he was recruited to NATO’s wartime intelligence staff, where he served for six years as an analyst and advisor working on threats to the Alliance, its member states, and deployed forces.

▶ Mike later spent two years in Iraq as a UN Official with UNITAD, a special political mission mandated to collect and preserve evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Between periods of NATO and UN service, Mike spent nearly a decade running a strategic intelligence and political risk consultancy.

▶ In that capacity he undertook desk and field assignments for private and public sector clients, including British, Canadian, American, and Norwegian government entities.

▶ He mobilised teams and supported government science, technology, defence, and development projects, as well as commercial due diligence, market entry, and risk intelligence.

▶ He worked independently, in consortia and with large primes, including BAE, Thales, and PWC, and on field assignments in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cote d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Ukraine.

NOTABLE ASSIGNMENTS

Mike is especially proud of the research and analysis he has contributed to evidence-based plans and policy for government technology, justice, diplomacy, development, and defence and security programs.

Among these, stand-out achievements are advising and managing high volume and ultra-high volume evidence digitization projects, for federal police and court systems in two separate countries, and for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of a third country.

TEACHING

Mike has taught undergraduate and postgraduate university students, multiple cohorts of deploying NATO intelligence staff, and working analysts and executive decisionmakers.

▶ He taught history and political science courses at King’s College London, the School of Oriental and African Studies, City University London, and University College London, and in the UAE at Zayed University.

▶ Academic subject matter has ranged from diplomatic history and international relations to political analysis, human rights and international justice, and violence, conflict and development.

RESEARCH

Mike’s research interests deal broadly with the history and geopolitics of information, communications, and the rule of law.

▶ He is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Dept of War Studies at King’s College London, where he founded and directs the Conflict Records Unit.

▶ He is part of a network of researchers based at universities in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, investigating the impact of digital information and communication technologies in Africa.

WRITING

Mike’s work has appeared in popular, trade, and scholarly outlets, including Foreign Policy, Wired, CNN, Jane’s Intelligence Review, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Civil Wars, and Cultural Survival Quarterly.

▶ His current major writing project is The Cipher of Polybius, a book on the history and law of intelligence, how they shape our understanding of evidence and consequence, and their implications in an AI-first world.

▶ He is the author of Streets Without Joy: A Political History of Sanctuary and War, 1959-2009, (C. Hurst & Co Publishers & Oxford University Press, 2021), and the editor of four previous volumes.

▶ He has produced hundreds of government-classified and commercially-confidential reports over the course of his career. He shares informal research notes on an occasional basis, on this website and elsewhere.