Gideon Rachman is chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times. He writes a weekly column on foreign affairs, as well as an FT blog. He has reported over the past year from the United States, China, Afghanistan, Georgia, Pakistan and the European Union. Before joining the FT in 2006, he worked for The Economist for 15 years in a range of jobs, including as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Bangkok and Washington.

Mr Rachman read history at Cambridge University and has been a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson school at Princeton University. He is married with four children.