Personal life Moorcraft was born in 1948 in
Cardiff,
Wales. He attended
Cantonian High School in Cardiff, and then
Swansea University,
University of Lancaster and Cardiff University. Moorcraft later studied at universities in the
Middle East and in
Southern Africa, including the (
University of South Africa and the University of Harare). Moorcraft married Susan van den Brink in 1987 on an island situated in
Zimbabwe's
Lake Kariba. In his memoirs, he said it happened "almost by accident". The marriage was dissolved in 1993. Moorcraft now lives in the
Surrey Hills, near
Guildford in the
United Kingdom.
Career Moorcraft has been the Director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Analysis since its establishment in 2004. It is an independent non-political organisation dedicated to
conflict resolution. It has been active in various countries, but especially Sudan. The centre sent fifty
observers for the 2010 national
elections in both north and south
Sudan. In the course of his academic career Moorcraft taught full-time at the
University of Zimbabwe,
University of KwaZulu-Natal,
University of Cape Town,
University of the Witwatersrand,
Cardiff MCC University,
Baylor University,
Deakin University,
University of Waikato and
Bournemouth University, as well as lecturing part-time at the
Open University and
University of Westminster. His subjects ranged from
international politics to
journalism. Moorcraft has also worked for the British defence establishment. He is a former senior instructor at the Royal Military Academy,
Sandhurst (1973–1975), and has also taught at the UK
Joint Services Command and Staff College (1997–2000). Moorcraft also worked in corporate communications in the
British Ministry of Defence in
Whitehall. The Ministry of Defence recalled him for six months during the
Iraq War in 2003. Moorcraft has also pursued a career as a journalist. He was the editor of a range of security and foreign policy magazines, including
Defence Review and Defence International. He worked for
Time magazine, the
BBC and most of the Western TV networks as a
freelance producer and
war correspondent. Moorcraft was a Distinguished Radford Visiting Professor in Journalism at Baylor University, Texas. Over the past three decades, he has worked in thirty
war zones in
Africa, the
Middle East,
Asia and the
Balkans, often with irregular forces. Moorcraft is also a
crisis management consultant to such international
blue-chip companies as
Shell Oil,
British Gas,
3M Corporation, Standard Bank etc., as well as for various government organisations. He is the author of a range of books on
military history, politics and crimes. Moorcraft is a media commentator and appears regularly on BBC TV and radio, as well as organizations such as Sky and
Al Jazeera. He is also an op-ed/columnist for major international newspapers including
The Guardian,
Washington Times,
Business Day,
New Statesman and
Western Mail. Moorcraft is a novelist, best known for his
Anchoress of Shere (Poisoned Pen Press, 2002). He lost some eyesight in one eye as a result of previous war injuries, and in 2009 lost the sight in his good eye after surgery to remove a
brain tumour. Moorcraft takes an active interest in raising awareness of
dyscalculia in children. ==Criticism==