Andrew John Williamson Memorial Public Lecture 2025

This years Andrew John Williamson Lecture will be delivered by General Sir Patrick Sanders, who will reflect on Antonio Gramsci’s enduring observation:
“The old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”

The lecture will consider the implications of this insight for the contemporary West at a moment of acute geopolitical instability. After more than eight decades of relative peace and prosperity, sustained by the post-war international order, we now confront an era marked by disruptive change, insecurity, and the erosion of strategic confidence.

Sir Patrick will address a series of pressing questions:

• What structural forces are driving this turbulence?
• What are the potential consequences of failing to respond effectively?
• What strategies and measures might be adopted to enhance our security?
• To what extent do states and societies retain agency in shaping the emerging order?

Although this is a period of profound risk, the lecture will also consider grounds for cautious optimism—what Ian Dury once called “Reasons to be Cheerful.”

Timings :

17:00 - Doors open / Registration

17:30 - Lecture Starts

18:45 - Approximate Finish

Information about speaker :

General Sir Patrick Sanders served as one of the UK’s Joint Chiefs from 2019 to 2024, first as Commander of UK Strategic Command (2019–2022), and subsequently as Chief of the General Staff (2022–2024). His military career began during the Cold War in West Germany and spanned four decades, including operational command in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan—where he was decorated for leadership under fire.

Beyond the battlefield, he held key strategic roles, including serving in the Pentagon as an adviser to the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and in the UK Ministry of Defence as Director of Operations, where he advised both the Defence Secretary and the Prime Minister.

Following his retirement from a distinguished 40-year military career, Sir Patrick became Chairman of Herminius Strategic Intelligence and holds a number of high-level international advisory roles. These include:

• Global Defence Adviser to Banco Santander
• Senior Adviser to STARK, a leading European drone manufacturer
• Director of THESIS, an international security forum
• Co-host of The General & The Journalist, a weekly geopolitical podcast produced by The Times and shortlisted for UK Podcast of the Year
• Patron of the UK’s Afghan Veterans’ Charity

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