David Stansfield graduated Summa Cum Laude in Modern Arabic Studies from Durham University, and continued studying the language and the culture at the universities of Cambridge, Paris and Toronto (with Marshall McLuhan), whereupon he was recruited by MI6, the British equivalent of the CIA. David’s 14-part Columbia University PBS television series, “The Middle East” was a selection in the 1987 Academy Awards Best Educational Documentary category. Most recently, he was the Arabic consultant on the Netflix “House of Cards” television series. In addition, he wrote and produced over 400 television scripts (documentary, drama, comedy, animation) on many different subjects for TVOntario in Canada (both in English and French), NHK in Japan, and the Public Broadcasting Service, the Discovery Channel, Encyclopedia Britannica and Time-Life in the U.S. He has written sixteen books, seven of the most recent being copiously illustrated volumes about ISIS authored with Allen Waldman.