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

Chris Abbott is a freelance writer and researcher specialising in national and international security, foreign affairs and climate change (though he has written on a diverse range of social issues from indigenous rights to the death penalty). He is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford and holds the honorary position of Sustainable Security Consultant to Oxford Research Group (ORG), a leading global security think tank. He is also a member of the advisory council for the Climate Institute, Bangalore. His research interests include transnational and non-traditional security threats, alternative global security strategies, political psychology and the security implications of climate change. 

Chris is perhaps best known for his work developing and promoting the sustainable security framework. He was the Deputy Director of Oxford Research Group until June 2009. He joined ORG in October 2003 and directed their Moving Towards Sustainable Security programme from September 2006 until 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 panel made up of Lords and former MPs, ministers, diplomats and civil servants. In his final months at ORG he founded SustainableSecurity.org and he remains an Associate Editor for the website. Throughout 2008, he was also an Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Governance and International Affairs at the University of Bristol.

In addition to several influential reports, including Global Responses to Global Threats: Sustainable Security for the 21st Century (2006) and An Uncertain Future: Law Enforcement, National Security and Climate Change (2008), his articles on global security issues have appeared in numerous publications in the UK and abroad. His first book, Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World, was published in April 2007 to worldwide acclaim, and is now available in five languages. Desmond Tutu praised it as "radical in the proper sense" and Brian Eno said it was "the single most important contribution to understanding and coping with the future that I have ever read". Chris's second book, 21 Speeches that Shaped Our World: The People and Ideas that Changed the Way We Think, was published in August 2010. 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.

Chris 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, ABC, British Forces Radio, The Australian, The Toronto Star and Esquire. His books and reports have been covered by press and media around the world, including the Times, Independent and Guardian in the UK and Al-Jazeera, CNN and the Boston Globe overseas.

His work on international security has been endorsed by a wide range of politicians, academics, journalists and public figures. It has been raised twice by MPs in the British 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 in the House of Commons on the security implications of climate change, 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 and briefed members of the police and armed forces from the UK and Australia on the potential impact of climate change on their professions.

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 British International Studies Association, the Foreign Affairs & Global Risks Network, the Futures Analysts' Network, the World Security Network and the Peace and Collaborative Development Network. He currently lives in West Cornwall.

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