Ian Williams is based in New York, USA, but has an international agenda as a writer and journalist. He was twice president and twice vice president of the United Nations Correspondents Association. He originated the UNCA award for best UN coverage in 1995 years ago and is a judge in the New York Overseas Press Club Awards.

He had a spell as producer and anchor for UN coverage for ForeignTV.com for which he also produced features from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Kosovo. His work The Fifth Estate for CBC - Too Good For Its Own Good - won silver medals at the New York and Columbus film festivals and he has worked for or appeared on ABC, BBC, ITN, CNN and many other radio and TV stations internationally as interviewer, interviewee, researcher, and pundit. He frequently comments for Canadian Television and radio on international affairs.

In the US he has contributed to Newsday, LA Weekly, Village Voice, New York Observer, Penthouse, and many others. He writes for online media such as Salon, Open Democracy and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. He has been a regular contributor in Britain to the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, the European, the Observer, the Independent, the Sunday Herald, the Scotsman and to magazines such as the New Statesman, Plays & Players and Punch.

His first book The Alms Trade was published in 1989 and The UN For Beginners was published in 1995, Deserter: Bush\'s War on Military Families, Veterans and His Own Past was published in 2004, and quickly followed by his current book, (August 2005) Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776.

Ian will be contributing a significant essay to the forthcoming cities500 book VOICES, which will trace the history and effect of the Atlantic slave trade from 1807 – when its commercial aspects were abolished in the UK – through to 2007, the 200th anniversary of that significant event. He is the cities500 editorial consultant for the USA, and American continent at large, including Canada.

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