Mike founded CKS after working on complex sourcing, evidence, and analysis problems for more than twenty years. He manages the company’s strategic direction, leads project design and implementation, and routinely advises public and private sector clients.

Based in Dubai, he divides his time between the UAE, the UK, Canada, and assignments elsewhere. He maintains a portfolio of professional activities that keep him current with the latest academic research in his field and increasingly immersed in the study of law.

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Mike’s career is defined by his commitment to rule of law programmes and operations around the world. After seven years in early career military service in infantry and intelligence units, he served six years as a civilian NATO official in the Balkans, Europe, and Afghanistan, and two years as a UN Official in Iraq. He spent a decade running a strategic intelligence and political risk consultancy in the UK, undertaking desk and field assignments for British, Canadian, American, and Norwegian government clients.

Working in consortia and with large primes, including BAE, Thales, and PWC, he mobilised project teams and delivered research and analysis that underpinned evidence-led government activities. Among other assignments, Mike advised a federal police war crimes unit in Eastern Europe on its evidence management protocols, managed nation-wide evidence digitization for the distributed counterterrorism judiciary of a Middle Eastern state, and coordinated a diplomatic initiative to preserve and translate the publications of a Southwest Asian state’s former government.

RESEARCH & WRITING

Mike is a recognized specialist on the geopolitics of information, communications, and the rule of law. Concurrent with his previous consulting practice, he researched and lectured on international relations, organisations, and security at King’s College London, the School of Oriental and African Studies, and University College London. For the last five years, he has been a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London, where he founded and directs the Conflict Records Unit. That and his more recent consulting assignments led him to the subject of his next book, The Cipher of Polybius, on the history and law of intelligence, evidence, and consequence, and what they mean today in an AI-first world.

Mike has drafted hundreds of government classified and commercially confidential reports over the course of his career. His public writing has appeared scholarly, trade, and popular outlets including Foreign Policy, Wired Magazine, CNN, Jane’s Intelligence Review, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Civil Wars, Cultural Survival Quarterly, and others. He is the editor of four previous books, and the author of Streets Without Joy: A Political History of Sanctuary and War, 1959-2009, (C. Hurst & Co Publishers & Oxford University Press, 2021).

Mike is an elected fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Historical Society. He holds B.A. and M.A degrees in history, a PhD in political science from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and a Graduate Diploma in Law from Birkbeck College.

"Mike's ability to bridge the worlds of academic research, intelligence analysis, and legal operations made him an invaluable strategic advisor. He brings to the table a combination of hands-on experience, intellectual rigour, and astute operational judgment. An exceptional consultant."

— Executive Director, international justice NGO

"What impressed me most was Mike's understanding that good intelligence isn't just about gathering information - it's about delivering practical insights that drive results. The strategic intelligence he provided directly contributed to Neptune winning new business."

— Carl Sykes, Group Managing Director, Neptune P2P Group

"I don't know anyone outside of engineering and developer circles who researches AI as much as these guys do. Everyone in my entourage uses AI as a user. Mike takes it up a notch: inspector, quality assurance, researcher, psychologist, anthropologist. Next level."

— Alaa Dalghan, Managing Director, Cognit DX

ABOUT STREETS WITHOUT JOY

"Innes writes with great clarity and insight, drawing upon a large scholarly literature and his own experiences in the field to produce an immensely readable and stimulating account."

— Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst / Vice President, New America Foundation

"A singular achievement combining applied history and theory to explore how dominant discourses shaped the way in which the US waged war."

— Joe Maiolo, Cry Havoc: The Arms Race and the Second World War, 1931-41

"Extremely readable, lucidly stated and focused, Innes’ analysis is enhanced by a sharp eye for concrete situations and an ear for the voices of people he has met up with in the course of his career. A penetrating analysis of spaces that defy sovereign jurisdiction."

— Christopher Coker, The Rise of the Civilizational State

"A masterful account of how streets without joy are bordered by offices where thought is locally instrumental, language elides, and truth is elsewhere. Quite literally surreal, illuminating, and depressing."

— David Westbrook, Getting Through Security: Counterterrorism, Bureaucracy, and a Sense of the Modern

“Perceptively illuminates a construct that shaped the last twenty years of war, with tragic implications for millions. If you want to understand how the War on Terror went wrong, read this book."

— David Kilcullen, author of Blood Year: The Unraveling of Western Counterterrorism and

Innes conclusively demonstrates the power of presidential rhetoric - even when unclear in meaning or unscripted in delivery... a superb example of blending real world experience with in-depth research and analysis... offers important cautions for the present as it reveals the blind spots of the past."

— Andrew J. Whitford, Dept of History, United States Military Academy