Humphrey Hawksley - BBC Foreign Correspondent & Author

Humphrey Hawksley is a leading BBC foreign correspondent, author and commentator on world affairs, with a particularly keen interest in global military affairs. For more than twenty years Humphrey has reported on key trends, events and conflicts from all over the world making him one of the most experienced and well respected in his field.

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On leaving school, he became a deckhand on a cargo ship to Australia, then worked and travelled widely before becoming a journalist. 

He joined the BBC in 1983, editing radio bulletins in the main newsrooms, and took up his first foreign posting in 1986 to cover the Tamil civil war in Sri Lanka. He didn't stay long. He was expelled after six months for revealing atrocities against civilians

From there, he specialized in the rapid and often painful growth of Asia with postings in India, the Philippines and Hong Kong. In 1994, he was appointed the BBC's Bureau Chief in Beijing, tasked with opening its first permanent television operation in China.

He moved to London in 1997 from where he reported extensively from the Middle East, Asia, the United States, Latin America and Africa - with both breaking news and in-depth documentaries.

His more recent television films are: The Curse of Gold, Supply Chain Children and Bitter Sweet that uncover the link between trillion dollar retail industries and conflict in the developing world; Old Man Atom that investigates the global nuclear program; and Danger: Democracy at Work examining risks in bringing Western-style democracy too quickly to some societies. 

Humphrey is the author of several books including an internationally acclaimed 'Future History' series (Dragon Strike, Dragon Fire and The Third World War) that explores conflict in Asia. He has published four international thrillers, Ceremony of Innoncence  Absolute Measures, Red Spirit and Security Breach, and the non-fiction examination of the modern-day path to democracy from dictatorship - Democracy Kills: What's so good about the Vote.

His work has appeared in the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Yale Global and other publications.  His university lectures include Columbia, Cambridge and the London Business School.

Humphrey's incredibly diverse career, his eloquence developed through extensive TV experience and his unwavering passion for his work is a combination that ensures he is able to educate, enthuse and humour in equal measure.

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