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

Publications

“Islamic Terrorist Targeting of Contemporary Western Culture: ‘Deviant Chaos’”, in Cultural Heritage in Modern Conflict. Past, Propaganda, Parade, ed. by Timothy Clack and Mark Dunkley (Routledge 2022).
https://www.routledge.com/Cultural-Heritage-in-Modern-Conflict-Past-Propaganda-Parade/Clack-Dunkley/p/book/9781032200804

“Keeping it simple: how technology shapes the terror threat”, in Man and Technology: How Humanity Thrives in a Changing World, ed. by Kurt Almqvist, Alastair Benn and Mattias Hesserus (Stolpe Publishing, 2022), pp 213-218. https://bokforlagetstolpe.com/en/books/man-and-technology-how-humanity-thrives-in-a-changing-world/

“Half of the National Risk Register is Missing”, RUSI Newsbrief 22 January 2021. https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/rusi-newsbrief/half-national-risk-register-missing

“Superforecasting will not save us”, Engelsberg Ideas 4 November 2022. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/superforecasting-will-not-save-us/

“Knowing Russia was going to Invade Ukraine was not enough”, Engelsberg Ideas 3 March 2022.
https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/knowing-russia-was-going-to-invade-ukraine-was-not-enough/