In this lecture, drawing on his personal experience as a top security and foreign policy practitioner, Sir Mark will highlight the key security threats facing the UK over the next few years, including Russian aggression, Islamic terrorism and cyber warfare. He will discuss the unprecedented new threats to the current Rules-Based International Order that has served UK security and prosperity so well since the second world war and ask whether we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the Nation State era. In such dangerous and uncertain times, Sir Mark will set out his view on what the UK Government needs to do to keep the country safe and make a post-Brexit success of Global Britain.

Sir Mark Lyall Grant is a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Defence Studies (Department of War Studies). Sir Mark qualified as a Barrister before joining the diplomatic service in 1980. Over the next 35 years, he served in Pakistan (twice), France, South Africa and the US as well as holding numerous positions in the FCO and Cabinet Office in London. He was High Commissioner to Pakistan (2003-06), Political Director in the FCO (2007-09) and Ambassador to the UN for more than 5 years from 2009-15 – during which time he chaired the UN Security Council on 4 occasions. He then served as the National Security Adviser to David Cameron and then Theresa May (2015-2017). In that position, he was head of the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office and Secretary to the National Security Council, and oversaw the 2015 Strategic Security and Defence Review. He left Government service in April last year. He is a consultant on Security and Foreign Policy issues and a Bencher at Middle Temple, alongside his position at King’s.