Duncan Spinner has worked in conflict and post conflict operations and capacity building since 1992, initially as an officer in the British Army, where he commanded and planned a variety of counter terrorist operations as well as military diplomatic missions to build counter narcotics capacity in Colombia, counter poaching in Kenya, the application of the rule of law in internal security operations in Jordan and Israel and anti terrorism capacity in the US military after the suicide bombing of USS Cole in 2000. He raised, trained and led an Iraqi National Guard battalion conducting counter insurgency operations during the Mehdi army uprising in Basra region in 2004 before becoming a staff officer attached to the UK Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office building training capacity in the Balkans through the medium of The Peace Support Operations Centre.