Dan Smith is a non-resident Senior Fellow of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva. Now based in Sweden as an independent consultant, he was Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) from 2015 to 2025. Previously (2003 to 2015), he was Secretary General of the London-based peacebuilding organisation International Alert, and Director of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (1993-2001).  He chaired the UN Peacebuilding Fund Advisory Group in 2010–11. His research focuses on ecological security and world order, and on the Middle East and Northeast Asia. He has authored atlases of world politics and of peace and security in the Middle East and blogs on international politics at www.dansmithsblog.com.