Born in Liverpool, UK, Ian Williams graduated from Liverpool University despite several years’ suspension for protests against its investments in South Africa. Consequently, he had a wobbly career path, which included a drinking competition with Chou En Lai and an argument about English literature with Mme Mao before taking up journalism, briefly taking time off to be a speech/article writer for British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock in the 1987 election campaign.

His first book was The Alms Trade, on the historical development of NGO's, and the second was The UN for Beginners. He also wrote Deserter, on Bush’s Vietnam war record, and Rum: A Social and Sociable History, and contributed to many others including George Orwell into the 21st Century - T Cushman end, Paradigm Publishing, (2005) Irving Howe, Ed. John Rodden, University of Nevada Press (2005) including The UN And World Affairs (1993), and No Peace To Keep (1995), The KGB Bar Reader (2005).

He wrote the chapter “The UN and Iraq.” in The Iraq War: Causes and Consequences, Rick Fawn and Raymond Hinnebusch (eds), Lynne Rienner Press (2006), He also contributed to The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell, Ed. John Rodden Cambridge University Press, and Why Kosovo Matters: The Debate on the Left Revisited - Ed Danny Postel, ed. (Cybereditions) both due next year.
He has written papers for International Human Rights Journal, Vereinte Nationen.

He is a columnist for the Guardian-America on line, a senior analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, and an editor at World Policy Journal. He is also contributor to Emerging Markets Report, and FTSE Global Markets and many other publications.

Twice president of the UN Correspondents Association, he has been writing about global affairs since 1989 for newspapers, magazines and academic journals around the world.

He has written for newspapers and magazines around the world, ranging from the Australian, via the Jamaica Gleaner to the Scotsman, from the New York Observer and the Village Voice to the New Statesman and Newsday, to the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, and the Guardian. Internationally, he has written for China Economic Review, Asia Times, Al Wasat, Al Akhbar Al-Arabi, Al Hayat, Die Woche and many others.

A regular commentator on Press TV and Al-Jazeera, he also “pundits” on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CBC and innumerable radio stations. He appears on everything from Scarborough Country to the O'Reilly Factor arguing for rational and balanced coverage of the world. His unflappable sense of humor is the secret for the return calls and the frequent speaking engagements across the US. He speaks regularly at World Affairs Councils, UNA's, universities and colleges across the world, from Almaty to Alaska, on the UN and world affairs.