Sir Andrew Wood was a member of the British Diplomatic Service between 1961 and 2000. He was posted three times to Moscow (1964-6, 1979-82 and 1995-2000, the latter as Ambassador), twice to Washington (1967-70 and 1989-1992) and twice to Belgrade (1975-9 and 1985-9, the latter posting as Ambassador). He returned regularly to Moscow and other formerly Soviet countries on retirement in 2000 on behalf of UK based business interests for some years afterwards.
He has been an Associate Fellow at Chatham House since 2005, and written a number of times for the Russia and Eurasia Programme there. He has also written for The American Interest and been interviewed by a variety of public media organisations on Russia related issues.