Author - Alastair Newton

Alastair Newton has been Senior Political Analyst at Nomura International plc since October 2008, having first joined Lehman Brothers International in that capacity in August 2005. As such, he is responsible for identifying, tracking and analysing political events worldwide which are likely to impact on financial markets. In addition to his signature periodical Issues Which Keep Me Awake At Night on political and geopolitical risk, he is the co-author of major studies on China, on India and on North Korea, as well as numerous shorter papers. A selection of his published papers may be found at www.alastairnewton.com.

He is also a frequent commentator on current politics on television and radio and a regular speaker at conferences and other events worldwide.

Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Alastair spent 20 years as career diplomat with the British Diplomatic Service. He served in sub-Saharan Africa, Paris (at the OECD) and the United States. In London, he worked in intelligence co-ordination (including during the 1990/91 Gulf War), policy planning and economic relations, as well as running the Prime Minister's G7/8 team from 1998 to 2000. He was on secondment from the Diplomatic Service to Lehman Brothers from 2000 to 2002.

In addition to his work at Nomura, Alastair is President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies and an active participant in Track 2 discussions aimed at enhancing economic and political stability across the MENA region. He is Vice Chair of the Supervisory Board of African Development Corporation. And he is a member of: the Chatham House Council; Phoenix Africa’s Expert Group; the London School of Economics’ Knowledge Transfer Working Group; the British Banking Association’s Trade Policy Advisory Panel; the Liberalisation of Trade in Services (LOTIS) Committee of TheCityUK; and the Practitioners’ Advisory Board of the journal Global Policy.