Ronald Bruce St. John

In 2016, St. John was the keynote speaker at a United States Naval Special Warfare Command conference on terrorism in Libya, and later that year at a trial in Norway he gave expert evidence on corruption in Libya during the time of Qaddafi. A new edition of his Libya: From Colony to Revolution was reviewed in 2018 as "essential reading for those seeking a greater understanding of this complex North African state".

St. John has served on the Atlantic Council’s Working Group on Libya and the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Libyan Studies; in 2015 he was a consultant to the Department of State, the National Intelligence Council, Al Jazeera International, Associated Press, the BBC World Service, CNN News, National Geographic Magazine, NBC News, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

In April 2003, St. John gave a lecture entitled "Out With the Old, In With the New: The Bush Administration and the Middle East". In May 2004, he wrote an article for Foreign Policy in Focus entitled "Bush policies make terrorism a growth industry", in which he stated that in its "war on terrorism" the White House was "not interested in the historical, political, economic and cultural factors that shape regional dissident groups" and that "Regional terrorist groups are invariably portrayed as having been co-opted by al-Qaeda and subject to its command and control." In October 2004, St. John observed that .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}

From 1973 to 2001, St. John was an executive of Caterpillar Inc. From the 1980s, he also wrote articles and books, especially on Libya and South American history. He ended his career with Caterpillar as Head of Far East Operations, then became an affiliate professor of Bradley University and a member of the board of trustees of Knox College. He is a director of Hindustan Power Plus Ltd., the International Marine Certification Institute, and the Illinois Stewardship Alliance. In 1995, he was a member of the Siam Society.

St. John graduated from Knox College, Illinois, in 1965. In 1970, he graduated Ph. D. from the University of Denver with a thesis on Peruvian foreign policy, 1919 to 1939.

Ronald Bruce St. John (born 1943), also known as R. Bruce St. John, is an American historian and writer on international relations, an affiliate professor of Bradley University.