Moderated by:
Gordon Corera – the BBC’s Security Correspondent since 2004. Gordon has reported from around the world on issues of terrorism, intelligence and cyber-security. He has interviewed serving heads of the CIA, MI6, GCHQ, NSA and FBI. He is the author of five books, including Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies and MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service, and has made a number of documentary series for the BBC about intelligence services and related issues.
On the panel:
Elisabeth Braw – visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Elisabeth focuses on deterrence against emerging forms of aggression, such as hybrid and grey-zone threats, and non-kinetic operations including cyberspace operations. She is also a columnist with Foreign Policy, where she writes on national security and the globalized economy. Before joining AEI, Ms. Braw was a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London, where she founded and directed its modern deterrence project. She has also been an associate fellow at the European Leadership Network, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a senior consultant at Control Risks, a global risk consultancy. A frequent speaker at European and NATO conferences, Ms. Braw often appears on BBC Radio 4 and other international media.
Professor Sir David Omand – former Director GCHQ. Sir David is Visiting Professor in War Studies, King’s College London. Previous posts included Security and Intelligence Coordinator in the Cabinet Office, Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, Director GCHQ, and Deputy Under-Secretary of State for Policy in MOD. He served for 7 years on the JIC. He is the Senior Independent Director of Babcock International. He is the author of Securing the State (Hurst), Principled Spying: The Ethics of Secret Intelligence (OUP) and How Spies Think: 10 Lessons from Intelligence (Penguin Viking).
Sir John Scarlett – former Chief of MI6. Sir John served as Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) from 2004 to 2009. Sir John joined SIS in 1971 and over the next 20 years served in Nairobi, Paris and twice in Moscow as well as several assignments in London. He was appointed Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) in September 2001. On 01 August 2004 Sir John rejoined SIS as its Chief. Sir John’s current roles include Senior Advisor at Morgan Stanley; Member of Swiss Re Strategic Council’; Chairman, SC Strategy Ltd; Director, Times Newspaper Holdings; Vice Chairman, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and Co-Chair of the Global Advisory Council, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC. Sir John is a member of the State Honours Committee; Vice- President of the UK Association de la Legion d’Honneur’ and a Trustee of the Friends of the French Institute in the United Kingdom and Trustee of the Royal Medical Foundation of Epsom College.