S. Mahmud Ali graduated from the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul, and was subsequently educated, first, at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), London, and then, at King's College London, where, after a year of post-graduate studies, he embarked on doctoral research and was granted a Ph.D. in "War Studies" by the University of London. Mahmud Ali worked successively as a broadcast-journalist, editor, regional analyst and senior manager at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service, London, for over two decades, during which period he was editorially responsible for coverage of developments in South-, Southeast-, and East Asia. He is the author of eight academic titles including five volumes on the post-1949 evolution of US-Chinese relations.