Long interesed in international issus, Richard Sim used to be Head of Reseach at the Institute for the Study of Conflict, at the time a leading international think tank on trouble spots worldwide, based in London.  He also worked as Senior Research Analyst for a busy international business sevice, called Control RisksLtd. Subsequently he contributed to several yearbooks and encyclopedias and various local and specialist publications such as Soviet Analyst and the Handelsblatt. He also published and edited The Haltwhistle Times, a successful local paper and the internationally recognised Letter from Haltwhistle, a newsletter specialising in the changes taking place in the fomer Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.  In more recent years he has been actively involved in a range of publising ventures and was, for three years, Director of Publications, with the North Pennines Heritage Trust. His interest in communities took him into Community Development work where he was especially interested in issues surrounding regeneration, youth problems and youth crime.

He hs contributed to many leading research works including those of the Hoover Institution, Longman and Macmillan.