Inaugural Lecture: Lord Peter Ricketts
Title: The practice of national security
Date: Wednesday 15 March 2017
Time: 18.30 hours
Lecture venue: Edmond J Safra Lecture Theatre, Ground Floor, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London
Wine reception: Chapters, 2nd Floor, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London
Abstract
Lord Ricketts reflected on the establishment of the UK National Security Council in 2010, as well as his appointment as the first National Security Advisor and the emergence of a national security approach in the United Kingdom. Tracing how the British Government has coordinated the different strands of its overseas policy from the Committee of Imperial Defence onwards, he set out why he believes the creation of the National Security Council was a constitutional innovation that deserves to last, and detailed how it operated in its first years while he was the National Security Adviser.
About Lord Peter Ricketts
Lord Peter Ricketts GCMG GCVO was a British diplomat for 40 years, spending much of his career dealing with national security issues. His last post before retirement in early 2016 was as Ambassador to France. He served twice on the UK delegation to NATO, in the 1970s and as Permanent Representative from 2003-2006. He was the main policy official in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) dealing with the Kosovo crisis in 1998-1999, Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in 2000-2001, the FCO’s political director up to and during the Iraq conflict 2001-2003, the Permanent Under-secretary of the FCO from 2006-2010 and acted as the UK’s first National Security Adviser 2010-2012. As Ambassador to France, Lord Ricketts was a member of the Advisory Committee on the French Government’s Defence White Paper in 2013. Lord Ricketts joined the House of Lords in 2016, and is a visiting professor at King’s College, London.
Department: Lord Peter Ricketts is a visiting professor at the Centre for Defence Studies, Department of War Studies.
