Paul Moorcraft Q & A

Paul Moorcraft is certainly a character that needs more than nine lives. Despite his many roles, he's someone that doesn't take himself too seriously. He is a visiting professor at Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, the Director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Analysis in London, Crisis Management Consultant for international companies, author of many controversial titles, has been a freelance TV war correspondent in over thirty war zones in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Balkans, and finally, one of the few military experts who has actually lived and worked with Jihadists.

Paul Moorcraft's timely and controversial publication; The Jihadist Threat, explores the international and domestic threats to the West from Jihadism. It begins with a brief trace into the origins and history of Jihadism from the time of the Prophet and then goes on to analyse the fall-out from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It examines how these events have fuelled the rise of the Islamic State, as well as other terror groups, and what dangers they may pose to European society. Explaining simply the dangerous cycle of Jihadism since it first conquered much of Europe in the Middle Ages, this book proves itself to be an important read.

Considering himself more of the Danny deVito type, rather than the Special Forces 'Rambos' he works with, his life has definitely been put at risk more than once.

That wasn't the only time. He tells of a second attack he faced on Mount Igman, near Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1994 when a depressed Serb anti-aircraft gun opened fire on a stranded bus full of women and children.

Twenty-four hours later, he was helped into the city by a British sergeant in the peacekeeping force.

Not one to shy away from laughing at himself he states: “I may have to don a blonde wig and hide in central Wales as Salman Rushdie did. At least I will be able to speak my native tongue.”

Paul has held down many professional roles, and continues to busy himself in military issues.

He was able to interview Robert Mugabe for Time magazine in January 1980. Whilst being very impressed by him at the time, he found himself disappointed by Mugabe's actions in becoming another “African dictator [that] totally wrecked a once-successful economy”.

He claims that above all, he found working for high-level PR in Whitehall the most exhausting position he has held, more so than being shot at, especially whilst working in the Ministry of Defence in the lead-up and immediate aftermath of the 2003 Gulf War.

But how does Paul Moorcraft relax in the midst of the danger, writing, saving the world and running a think-tank dedicated to conflict resolution?!

He doesn't sit still for too long, mind. Despite his almost complete blindness, he is adamant that he will continue going to war zones and writing his books. Having just returned to Khartoum, where he lectured and promoted the paperback version of his book on Africa's longest war, he has also been asked to visit a central African country to help its president survive an election. And if that's not enough, this master-of-schedules has also just produced a film on the dictatorship in the Maldives.