FIELD MARSHAL DAVID RICHARDS
Field Marshal David Richards is the former Chief of the Defence Staff — the professional head of the British Armed Forces. An ex-Army commando and proud Gunner, David led operations in East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan, and is probably best known for his innovative command in Sierra Leone in 2000. He went on to command NATO forces in Afghanistan during the Alliance's expansion of responsibility across the whole country.
Having first commanded the British Army, David became Chief of the Defence Staff in 2010 — Britain's strategic military commander, the Prime Minister's military adviser, and a member of the National Security Council. In this role, he played a major part in the 2011 Libyan campaign and in shaping the UK's final strategy in Afghanistan.
His operational awards include the Distinguished Service Order and Knight Commander of the Bath — the first officer to receive an operational knighthood since the Second World War — and in 2011 he received the annual Churchillian Award for leadership. He retired in July 2013, was created Baron Richards of Herstmonceux in February 2014, and now sits in the House of Lords. He was honoured to carry The Sword of Spiritual Justice at the Coronation of HM The King in 2023, and was promoted to Field Marshal in June 2025.
The Retreat from Strategy: Britain's Dangerous Confusion of Interests with Values
Britain is sleepwalking towards disaster, because London has abandoned all forms of proper strategy. That is the sobering message of this powerful analysis exposing the failings of British security and defence policy. Britain, Field Marshal David Richards argues, long ago abandoned the art and science of grand strategy, even though this is crucial to establishing the country's direction of travel. Without it, national strategy has been reduced to little more than a political game — how much threat Britain can afford, and who gets what from an ever-shrinking resource pot.
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It is in Britain's defence policy that the contradictions and self-delusion of abandoned strategy are most apparent, explaining why the balance between ends, ways and means — as sound strategy demands — has become not just elusive, but nearly impossible. Drawing on decades at the highest levels of British military command, The Retreat from Strategyoffers a pathway back to strategic realism, confronting the confusion of interests with values that has done such damage to Britain's standing in the twenty-first century.
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