[3] One of the unsuccessful candidates for the editorship of The Guardian in 1995, when Alan Rusbridger was appointed in succession to Peter Preston,[4] Walker resigned in 1999 after 28 years with the newspaper.

He also holds a variety of other positions, including senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.; senior fellow of the World Policy Institute at The New School in New York; member of the board of directors of the Global Panel Foundation (Berlin, Copenhagen, Prague, Sydney and Toronto).

[1] Walker has written several non-fiction books, including The National Front,[6] Waking Giant: Gorbachev and Perestroika, The Cold War: A History, Clinton: The President They Deserve and America Reborn.

Walker is the author of the Bruno detective series set in the Périgord region of France, where he has a home.

The novels depict an unconventional village policeman, Benoît "Bruno" Courrèges, a passionate cook and former soldier who was wounded on a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans, who never carries his official gun, and who has "long since lost the key to his handcuffs".