Richard Davy graduated in Modern History from Magdalen College, Oxford University. After teaching in Italy and training in Edinburgh, he worked for nearly 30 years on The Times (London) as foreign correspondent in Germany, Washington and Eastern Europe, and as Chief Foreign Leader Writer specialising in East-West relations. He covered much of the Prague Spring of 1968 and the long negotiations that produced the Helsinki Final Act of 1975. Later he was a leader writer for The Independent, a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC, an Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and a Senior Member of St Antony’s College, Oxford University.