He worked in many capacities, including head of the Arab/Israel section in the Near East and North Africa Department, and principal speechwriter to the Foreign Secretary.

[3] He resigned from the Foreign Office in 2004 after 15 years of service, citing his secret evidence to the Butler Review as the reason.

When he resigned, the Foreign Office threatened him with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act if he talked publicly about his work.

[4] In 2004, he founded the non-governmental organisation Independent Diplomat, the world's first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, which advises and supports democratic countries, would-be states and liberation movements all over the world, including the democratic Syrian opposition, the Frente Polisario of Western Sahara, members of Ukrainian civil society and the Marshall Islands, a low-lying Pacific archipelago, who, with support from Independent Diplomat, recruited and led the High Ambition Coalition (HAC), a group of what became over a hundred countries at the 2016 UN Paris climate conference.

Under the leadership of the foreign minister of the Marshalls, Tony de Brum, the HAC demanded and secured some of the most important elements of the resulting Paris Agreement, including the target of 1.5°C.

Ross explores the philosophy of democratic confederalism developed by Abdullah Öcalan and its influence on Kurdish groups in the Syrian Civil War such as the YPG and YPJ.