Laurie Bristow Keynote Speaker

Laurie Bristow 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.

Laurie was previously the UK’s Ambassador to Russia (2016-2020), at the time of 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 to Russia, 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 the major offshore oil and gas infrastructure and pipelines were built.

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 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 the spring of 1992. His career included stints working on a wide range 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.

Laurie is now President of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. He appears regularly on national and international media as an expert commentator, and regularly lectures to government, military, business, academic and general audiences. He is a Distinguished Fellow of RUSI, the leading defence and security think tank; a Professor of Practice at LSE Ideas; and a Senior Associate Fellow of the European Leadership Network, a think tank focussing on security and defence issues.