Biography

"Chris Abbott is a rising star of the peace and security field. Within a short time he has established himself as a distinctive and influential voice, capable of deep analysis, and the vision to drive this analysis home where it counts."
Dr John Sloboda, Oxford Research Group and Iraq Body Count | More...

Chris Abbott is the founder and Executive Director of Open Briefing, the civil society intelligence agency. He is also a freelance writer and consultant and has worked for a wide range of clients from the British Ministry of Defence and the Australian Federal Police to Greenpeace International, and had articles commissioned by publications as diverse as Jane's Intelligence Review and New Internationalist. His work focuses on non-traditional security threats and how to address them, including the security implications of climate change and the challenges posed by al-Qaida and other radical movements. He is also interested in the psychology behind international relations and the proper policing of protests, and has written on many different social and environmental issues. 

He is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Social and International Studies at the University of Bradford and Honorary Sustainable Security Consultant to Oxford Research Group (ORG), a leading global security think tank of which he was Deputy Director until 2009. He is also a member of the advisory council for the Climate Institute, Bangalore. Throughout 2008, he was an Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Governance and International Affairs at the University of Bristol.

Chris is the author of 21 Speeches that Shaped Our World: The People and Ideas that Changed the Way We Think (Rider, 2010) and co-author of Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World (Rider, 2007). Both books have received worldwide acclaim, with Desmond Tutu praising Beyond Terror as "radical in the proper sense" and Brian Eno saying it was "the single most important contribution to understanding and coping with the future that I have ever read". Chris is also the author of several influential reports, including An Uncertain Future: Law Enforcement, National Security and Climate Change (Oxford Research Group, 2008) and Global Responses to Global Threats: Sustainable Security for the 21st Century (Oxford Research Group, 2006). Several of his publications are required reading for courses at universities and military colleges in Britain and the United States, including the Joint Services Command & Staff College and the US Army War College.

He has been a regular commentator on political and security issues in the national and international media, and in recent years has been interviewed by the BBC, Channel 4 News, ABC, British Forces Radio, the Australian, the Toronto Star and Esquire. His books and reports have been widely reported on, including by the Times, Independent and Guardian in the UK and Al-Jazeera, CNN and the Boston Globe overseas.

Chris' work on international security has been endorsed by a wide range of politicians, academics, journalists and public figures. It has been raised twice in the House of Commons during debates with the Prime Minister (March 2008) and the Foreign Secretary (February 2008) and referred to by the Spanish Prime Minister at an international meeting in Uruguay (November 2006). His expertise has been sought by the British Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office, the Australian Federal Police and numerous think tanks. Chris has also briefed MPs on the security implications of climate change, lectured to members of the armed forces on future security threats, given evidence in front of a parliamentary Home Affairs Committee inquiry into the policing of protests, discussed international security issues with the Prime Minster's foreign policy adviser in 10 Downing Street, discussed nuclear issues with Iran's Permanent Representative to the IAEA, and briefed members of the police and armed forces from around the world on the potential impacts of climate change on their professions.

He is perhaps best known as one of the founders of the sustainable security framework, which he is developing with others at Oxford Research Group. He joined ORG in October 2003 and was promoted several times until becoming Deputy Director in September 2008. He also directed ORG's Moving Towards Sustainable Security programme from September 2006 until leaving the organisation in June 2009, and he remains on the programme's international advisory board. During this time he founded and chaired the UK Policy Group for Sustainable Security, a high-level group of Lords and former MPs, ministers, diplomats and civil servants; ran a series of international consultations on regional sustainable security in Asia and Oceania, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa; and founded SustainableSecurity.org, a news and analysis website that he remains an Associate Editor for.

Chris has a degree in Psychology from Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Masters in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews. He is a member of the Futures Analysts' Network, the World Security Network, BestThinking, and the Peace and Collaborative Development Network; an associate member of the Aprodex Asset Protection Network; and a recent member of the British International Studies Association and the Foreign Affairs & Global Risks Network. He lives in West Cornwall with his fiancée and their dog.

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