James Nixey joined Chatham House in 2000 and has been Director of the institute’s Russia and Eurasia Programme since 2013.

He is also an Associate Fellow with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and serves on the board of the journal UA: Ukraine Analytica.

Principal research interests concern Russia’s relationships with the other post- Soviet states, and key international actors. Selected publications include The Long Goodbye: Waning Russian Influence in The South Caucasus and Central Asia(2012), Russia’s Geopolitical Compass: Losing Direction in Putin Again: Implications for Russia and the West

(2012), Russian Foreign Policy Towards the West in The Russian Challenge (2015), the introductions for The Struggle for Ukraine (October 2017) and Kazakhstan: Tested by Transition (2019), and most recently, multiple sections in Myths and Misconceptions in the Debate on Russia: how they affect western policy and what can be done (April 2021)

James has also written for The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, Newsweek, USA Today, BBC.co.uk and CNN.com. He holds degrees in modern languages and international relations and has previous experience in journalism (as a reporter in Moscow in the late 1990s).