Laurie Bristow Keynote Speaker

Laurie Bristow is one of the UK’s leading experts on Russia, geopolitical risk, and crisis leadership. He was the UK’s Ambassador to Russia from 2016–2020, during a period of heightened tensions that included the Novichok nerve agent attack in Salisbury. For some years the UK government’s most senior authority on Russia, he also served as Deputy Ambassador during the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia and in the aftermath of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko using polonium-210. He was Ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2004 to 2007, when major offshore oil and gas infrastructure and pipelines were built.

Laurie was the UK’s last Ambassador to Afghanistan in 2021. He was in Kabul during the fall of the Republic to the Taliban and oversaw the subsequent evacuation from Kabul airport. His book Kabul: Final Call is a first-hand account of the events of August 2021, the strategic and political failures that led to them, and their human consequences.

He now speaks extensively on Russia and wider geopolitical trends, as well as on leadership in times of crisis. In the last year alone, Laurie has given more than 60 media interviews across BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Sky News, Times Radio, and international print outlets. He has delivered keynote addresses and lectures to global law firms, governments, business leaders, and military institutions, including the Sandhurst course for generals. His recent events include panels with RUSI and Chatham House, appearances at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and lectures at Cambridge, LSE, King’s College London, Yale, and Johns Hopkins SAIS. He has also published invited articles in Prospect Magazine and the Diplomatic Courier on Russia, NATO, and cognitive warfare.

Laurie has deep and broad experience across the field of national and international security. As National Security Director in the FCO (2012–2015) he advised successive foreign secretaries on oversight of the UK’s intelligence agencies. He is an experienced crisis leader with an extensive track record of working on some of the most difficult and high-risk challenges faced by government.

Laurie joined the UK diplomatic service in 1990, as the Cold War ended and change swept across Europe. His first posting was to Romania in 1992. His career included stints working on many of the highest-profile and most complex issues since the end of the Cold War, including the UK’s relationship with the European Union, the transatlantic relationship, climate policy, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He is now President of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. Laurie is also a Distinguished Fellow of RUSI, a Professor of Practice at LSE Ideas, and a Senior Associate Fellow of the European Leadership Network. He appears regularly as an expert commentator and lectures widely to government, business, academic, and general audiences worldwide.