On Friday 31st January, Upper College and Sixth Form students were fortunate to hear Professor Sir David Omand speak in the Princess Hall.
Sir David is Visiting Professor in War Studies at King’s College London. His posts in British government service included UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator in the Cabinet Office, Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, Director of GCHQ and Deputy Undersecretary of State for Policy in the Ministry Of Defence. He was the Principal Private Secretary to the Defence Secretary during the Falklands war, served for seven years on the Joint Intelligence Committee, and has published four books: Securing the State (Hurst 2010); Principled Spying: the Ethics of Secret Intelligence (with Prof Mark Phythian) (Oxford 2018); How Spies Think: 10 Lessons from Intelligence (Penguin 2021) and How to Survive a Crisis: Lessons in Resilience and Avoiding Disaster (Penguin June 2023).
In his talk, entitled “How Spies Think”, he gave a fascinating insight into intelligence and shared some of his experiences and insight. It certainly gave all of those listening a lot to ponder!
Professor Sir David Omand's talk gave me a fresh perspective on both the nature and persisting value of GCHQ, and how our need for intelligence services has grown and adapted to our current global situation.
His advice on information gathering not only enriched our understanding of the UK's secret service and its role, but also our approach to other areas of academic and professional life.
Nadia, SFC1
Dr Woolstenhulme, Teacher of Religious Studies and Philosophy and Teacher in Charge of Academic Scholarship: Enrichment
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