Has a PhD in History from Birkbeck College, London, and an MA in Physics and M Phil in Social Anthropology both from Oxford University. He is the director of Amarna Ltd, a micro-company providing theoretical history-based research for clients in government and industry. Over the past 25 years, he has completed numerous research contracts, covering such topics as: humanitarian planning; counterinsurgency modelling; early warning of societal instability; the future of geopolitics; illicit financial networks; effects of new technology on society and social interaction; social cycles; analysing the attitudes and behaviour of populations from online data.