Dan Smith is the Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. From 2003 to 2015 he was Secretary General of the London-based international peacebuilding organization International Alert, and before that Director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo. From 2014 to 2017 he was also a Professor at the University of Manchester’s Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute.

He has held fellowships at the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Hellenic Foundation for Foreign and European Policy. He was Chair of the Advisory Group for the UN Peacebuilding Fund in 2010 and 2011 and from 1992 to 2006 was the Chair of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

Smith has been writing on peace and security issues for 40 years and, among other works, is the author of The State of the Middle East Atlas, as well as successive editions of The State of the World Atlas and The Atlas of War and Peace.

Smith was awarded the OBE in 2002, and blogs on international politics  at www.dansmithsblog.com.