Mike Elliott retired from the Canadian federal government in 2023 after more than 31 years of service. He spent the majority of his career in the Foreign Service, serving abroad in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the US. A specialist in international security, defence and intelligence issues, he was Canadian Ambassador to Mali in 2019 and chargé d’affaires in Libya in 2014. He served in NATO headquarters, with the International Security Assistance Force in Kandahar, Afghanistan and the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq, and at Canadian embassies in Tel Aviv, Israel and Washington, DC. He was also a Canadian exchange officer in the US Department of State, working on Near East and South Asia issues. In Canada his career spanned a number of departments and agencies including Public Safety Canada, the Department of National Defence, and the Privy Council Office (the Prime Minister’s department). He holds an M.A. from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University and an honors B.A. in military and strategic studies from the Royal Military College Saint-Jean.