Alastair Crooke

Not to be confused with Alistair Cooke.

Alastair Crooke CMG
Alastair Crooke in 2009
Security adviser to the EU special envoy to the Middle East
In office 1997–2003
Personal details
Born	(1949-06-30) 30 June 1949 (age 76) Dún Laoghaire, Ireland
Children	5
Alma mater	University of St Andrews

Alastair Warren Crooke CMG (sometimes misspelled as Alistair Crooke), born 30 June 1949, ^[1] is a former British diplomat, and is the founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum, an organisation that advocates for engagement between political Islam and the West. ^[2] Previously he was a ranking figure in both British intelligence (MI6) and European Union diplomacy. ^{[1] [3]}

Early life and education

Crooke was born in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, ^[4] to Frederick Montague Warren and Shona Ann Thomson. ^[1] His elder brother was Ian W T Crooke who became an SAS officer, eventually commanding 23 Special Air Service Regiment. ^{[5] [6]} Crooke was brought up mostly in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). ^[7] He was educated at Aiglon College in Switzerland ^[8] and at the University of St. Andrews (1968–1972) in Scotland, from which he obtained an MA in moral philosophy and political economy. ^{[1] [4]}

Career

Crooke started his career in London banking for a few years. ^[7]

Crooke later worked for nearly 30 years in the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) ^[9] under diplomatic cover in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Cambodia, Colombia, Pakistan and the Middle East. ^[4] His early work included helping provide weapons to jihadists fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan and assisting in the Northern Ireland peace process. ^{[7] [10]}

In 1997, he became a security adviser to the EU special envoy to the Middle East, and operating out of the British Embassy in Tel Aviv was involved in British attempts to draw Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian groups into the political process. ^[11] He was involved in negotiations to end the Israeli army's siege of Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. He assisted the negotiation of several local truces between the Israelis and Palestinians during the early 2000s. Crooke had good contacts with the Israeli military and intelligence services. ^{[11] [4]}

He was a member of the Mitchell Committee into the causes of the Second Intifada in 2000. ^{[3] [12]}

In 2001, British ambassador to Israel Francis Cornish described him as "a person who worked with the security apparatuses of both sides. He went into action after they stopped trusting each other and developed a special skill to persuade them of the logic of things and to bridge the lack of confidence between them." He had a central role in establishing a Hamas ceasefire in 2002. ^[11]

His MI6 background was exposed by Israeli newspaper Maariv' in 2002. ^[4] In September 2003, he was instructed to leave the Middle East, against his wishes, because of "personal security reasons" with a British embassy spokesman saying "We do think he's done a really difficult job in difficult conditions and has been outstanding at doing it." ^[11]

In the 2004 New Year Honours list, he was awarded the CMG for services to the advancement of the Middle East peace process. ^[13]

Crooke established Conflicts Forum in 2004, largely based in Beirut, with the aim of helping western governments understand Islamist groups and their military resistance to Israel. It was initially funded by some private donors, a small grant from the US Institute of Peace and some European Union funding to run a series of seminars. ^[4]

Later life

His 2009 book Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution provides background on what he calls the "Islamist Revolution" in the Middle East, helping to offer strategic insights into the origins and logic of Islamist groups which have adopted military resistance as a tactic, including Hamas and Hezbollah. ^{[7] [14]}

In 2011, The Spectator published an apology for a story by Melanie Phillips which contained an allegation about Crooke that The Spectator acknowledged was "completely false". The New Statesman reported that damages of "tens of thousands of pounds" were made to Crooke. ^{[15] [16]}

Since 2018, he has written frequently for the Russian think tank Strategic Culture Foundation, ^[17] and since 2023 for the U.S. based Eurasia Review. ^[18] He is a frequent guest in Andrew Napolitano's show "Judging Freedom".^{[ citation needed ]}

Private life

Crooke married in 1976; they had three sons, and later divorced. In 2005 he moved to Beirut with his partner; they had a son and a daughter and married in 2012. ^{[1] [7]}

References

1. "Crooke, Alastair Warren, (born 30 June 1949), Founder, 2004, and Director, since 2005, Conflicts Forum". Who's Who. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u4000524. ISBN   978-0-19-954088-4 . Retrieved 23 May 2021.
2. "Alastair Crooke". The Guardian. London. 19 May 2008. Archived from the original on 26 May 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
3. Crooke, Alastair (6 February 2009). "The Essence of Islamist Resistance: A Different View of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas". New Perspectives Quarterly. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
4. Harkin, James (2 January 2009). "Middleman in the Middle East" . Financial Times. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
5. McQueen, Alastair (11 January 2004). "Honoured MI6 officer cut teeth in Ulster". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
6. "Lt-Col Ian Crooke, SAS officer who rescued hostages in Gambia and served in the Falklands war – obituary" . The Daily Telegraph. 3 July 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
7. Worth, Robert F. (1 May 2009). "Ex-Spy Sits Down With Islamists and the West" . New York Times. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
8. Grey, Stephen (2015). The New Spymasters: Inside Espionage from the Cold War to Global Terror. New York: Viking. p. 223. ISBN   978-0670917402.
9. Grey, Stephen (12 December 2004). "Let's talk: ex MI6 man plans terror summit" . The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
10. Blomfield, Adrian (27 January 2011). "Palestinian Authority tells Britain it wants to question former MI6 officer" . The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
11. McGreal, Chris (24 September 2003). "UK recalls MI6 link to Palestinian militants". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
12. "Talking With the Enemy". New America Foundation. 2006. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
13. "Diplomatic service and overseas list". BBC News. 31 December 2003. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
14. Crooke, Alastair (2009). Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution. Pluto Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt183h09x. ISBN   978-0-7453-2885-0. JSTOR   j.ctt183h09x . Retrieved 27 August 2024.
15. Greenslade, Roy (28 June 2011). "Why Melanie Phillips quit The Spectator". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
16. Hasan, Mehdi (24 June 2011). "Goodbye, Melanie! Mehdi Hasan on the Spectator's departing blogger". New Statesman. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
17. "Alastair Crooke". Strategic Culture Foundation. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
18. "Author: Alastair Crooke". Eurasia Review. Albany, OR: Buzz Future. ISSN   2330-717X . Retrieved 16 October 2024.

• David Samuels (23 September 2009). "The Spy Who Loved Hamas. And Hezbollah. And Iran". Mother Jones . Archived from the original on 30 November 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2009.