James Watt is a Partner in the political risk consultancy, the Ambassador Partnership LLP, based in London, and Trustee of the London Middle East Institute at SOAS.  He is also Chairman of the Council for British Research in the Levant (www.cbrl.org.uk), which enables post-doctoral research in the humanities and social sciences, with institutes in Jerusalem and Amman. He also chairs the International Advisory Board of the King’s College London-led project, Research for Health in Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa (www.r4hc-mena.org).  In his career in the British Diplomatic Service from 1977-2014 he dealt mainly with the Middle East, serving as Ambassador to Lebanon (2003-06),  Jordan (2006-11) and Egypt (2011-14), and was previously Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan (1996-98).  He writes and lectures about political developments in the region, and has homes and children in London and Beirut.