John Lough is a geopolitical expert with a background in Russia and Eastern Europe, whose 35-year career has spanned the worlds of business, diplomacy, and research. Before moving to NEST Centre, he was a partner at Highgate, a leading London-based strategy consulting firm. Since 2009, he has been an Associate Fellow with the Russia & Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, London, where he has written extensively on a wide range of issues related to Russia and Ukraine. He leads NEST Centre’s work on foreign policy issues.
Between 2016 and 2021, he ran his own consultancy business, advising clients on political and investment risk in Russia, Ukraine, and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
From 2008 to 2016, he led the Russia/CIS practice at BGR Gabara, a public affairs consultancy. From 2003 to 2008, he served as an international affairs adviser at TNK-BP, Russia’s third-largest oil company at the time.
He spent six years with NATO, managing information programmes aimed at Central and Eastern Europe, including a posting to Moscow where he set up NATO’s Information Office in Russia. He was the first Alliance official to be permanently based in Russia (1995–1998).
Before joining NATO, he was a senior lecturer at the Soviet Studies (later Conflict Studies) Research Centre in the UK, writing on defence, security, and foreign policy issues related to the former Soviet Union.
He studied German and Russian at Cambridge University and holds a diploma in international relations from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
He is the author of Germany’s Russia Problem (Manchester University Press, 2021).
