Contributor

Michael Kay

Retired British officer/pilot in NYC; expert on the instruments of Foreign Policy

Retired British Officer and Helicopter pilot in the UK's Royal Air Force. Now a Foreign Policy and Economics Correspondent living and working in New York City. Trained as a UN Military Observer (in Delhi), flew countless operations on tours of duty in Kosovo, Iraq, Macedonia and Northern Ireland; operated under the NATO banner for 20 years, planned and strategised in Afghanistan, Sumatra (post Tsunami) and West Africa (evacuation operations); mentored senior military leadership in India on campaign/warfighting planning; studied with Kings College London for a post graduate in International Relations and Foreign/Defense Policy. My final three years in the Royal Air Force were spent working in the UK equivalent of the Pentagon advising ministers and politicians during the UK's Strategic Defense Review. The notion being that Foreign Policy should drive Military capability. In times of economic austerity however the reverse becomes true - in that military capability provides the 'art of the possible' to Foreign Policy.

I have extensive experience in the field of being an 'instrument of foreign policy' - as Carl Von Clausetwitz would say!

Twitter: @mikeykaynyc