Samir Puri Keynote Speaker

Director, Centre for Global Governance and Security, Chatham House.
Former UK diplomat and ceasefire monitor in Donbas. And former IISS-Asia Senior Fellow in Singapore.
Bestselling author of Westlessness (2024), Russia’s Road to War With Ukraine (2022), and The Great Imperial Hangover (2021).

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Samir Puri's Biography

Dr Samir Puri is a noted expert in geopolitics and a best-selling author. He leads Chatham House’s new ‘Centre for Global Governance and Security’, which is at the cutting edge of advising on how geopolitical instability is reshaping world order.

A former British diplomat, he has also held teaching positions in leading universities and in prestigious think tanks. He is able to engage expert and general audiences alike on the many sources of instability around the world, from breaking events to longer-term trends.

Dr Puri served in the UK Foreign Office between 2009 and 2015, including spending a year living in East Ukraine and monitoring Russia’s first invasion. After government service, he was a Lecturer in King’s College London teaching War Studies. In 2020 he moved to Singapore, where for three years he helped run the annual Shangri la Dialogue, a summit that covers Asian security.

His most recent book, published in 2024, is called ‘Westlessness: The Great Global Rebalancing’ The book considers the different aspects of changing power balances in the world. The Times Literary Supplement described it as ‘detailed, engaging and well-supported.

‘Westlessness’ is his fifth book, following his most recent publications, ‘Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine’, (2022) which was described as ‘stimulating and thoughtful’ by the Financial Times; and ‘The Great Imperial Hangover’, (2021) described as ‘well written, comprehensive and judicious’ by Fareed Zakaria in the New York Times.

International Affairs and Security

War in Ukraine

Asian Security

The New Multi-Polar Era

Imperial History

Baccata Autumn Lecture 2022

Deep Uncertainty in Russia-Ukraine Tensions

Russia-China Summit

Books by Samir Puri

Westlessness

Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine: Invasion Amidst The Ashes of Empires

The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Have Shaped the World

The Shadows of Empire: How Imperial History Shapes Our World

Comments & Testimonials

It’s not often you find an author who combines Samir’s analytical skill with his gift for communicating complex history and foreign affairs in a lively and accessible style. For anyone who feels adrift amid the devastating news from Ukraine, wondering how we got here and how the conflict might end, his book will be an invaluable guide.

Olivia Beattie Editorial Director at Biteback Publishing

Russia’s Road to War With Ukraine: Invasion Amidst the Ashes of Empires offers penetrating insights into the way the legacies of empire still affect the behaviour of states and the international climate.

The Financial Times