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Biography

Suzanne Raine writes and speaks on terrorism, risk analysis and warning. She is a Visiting Professor in the Department of War Studies at KCL and works at the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge University.  She served for 24 years in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on foreign policy and national security issues, including postings in Poland, Iraq and Pakistan.  She specialised in counter-terrorism, holding a number of senior domestic appointments including Head of the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre from 2015-2017.  She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Stop The Traffik, and the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln. 

Research Interests

  • Terrorism and Counter Terrorism
  • Analytical Techniques
  • Crisis anticipation and analytical response
  • Geopolitical risk and warning

Rooted in my experience as a counter terrorism practitioner, I examine questions about the role of analysis in enabling anticipation and warning, particularly with regard to geopolitical shocks. I also lecture on the role of analysis in crisis situations and the role of analysts in avoiding crises. This work has developed into a study of the role of prediction in decision-making, and the question of how to avoid surprise or, conversely, be surprising.

Teaching

  • Intelligence & International Security MA

Media

Print
13th Nov 2024

The perils of predicting the future

Thinking about the future as a mystery to be divined, rather than an outcome to be shaped, has become hard-wired into the way we talk about what will happen next in foreign policy.