Mark Urban is the Diplomatic and Defence Editor for BBC Two's Newsnight and has covered these matters in various roles for more than 20 years at the BBC. Prior to that he was Defence correspondent for The Independent newspaper for four years, covering the end of the Cold War and the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He is also the acclaimed author of Task Force Black: The explosive true story of the SAS and the secret war in Iraq; Big Boys' Rules: The SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA and Rifles: Six Years with Wellington's Legendary Sharpshooters. Mark read International Relations at the London School of Economics and served for a short time in the British Army.