Samir Puri was raised in 1980s London in a family that had traversed three continents in three generations, from Asia to Africa to Europe.

He later completed a PhD at Cambridge University in International Relations, worked at RAND, and then the Foreign Office, where his assignments covered counter terrorism and peace processes, including a year in east Ukraine monitoring the onset of war in 2014 - 15.

After government service, Dr Puri became a lecturer in War Studies at King's College London, and guest lectured at Cambridge and Johns Hopkins. He retains a visiting post at King’s and between 2020 and 2022 was Senior Fellow at IISS-Asia in Singapore.

In 2023 he joined Chatham House as Associate Fellow. In 2025 he was inaugural director of Chatham House’s Centre for Global Governance and Security, leading a refresh of its work and chairing international figures like former UK foreign secretary David Miliband and Singapore’s former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.

His books, 'The Great Imperial Hangover' and ‘Westlessness’ distil his varied perspectives: from the academic to the practical; from the personal to the political; and between East and West.