John Sawers

John Sawers   (spook, diplomat)
Born	26 July 1955 Warwick, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Nottingham, University of St Andrews, University of the Witwatersrand, Harvard University
Member of	BP/Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Chatham House/Governors, Council on Foreign Relations/Global Board of Advisors, Ditchley/Governors, Ditchley/UK, Macro Advisory Partners/Board, Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies/Fellows
Chief of the SIS In office 1 November 2009 - 1 November 2014 Preceded by John Scarlett Succeeded by Alex Younger  UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations In office 1 August 2007 - 1 November 2009  Director-General for Political Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office In office 2003 - 2007 Succeeded by Mark Lyall Grant  Ambassador to Egypt In office 2001 - 2003  Permanent Representative to the United Nations In office 1 August 2007 - 1 November 2009

Background

Sawers was born in Warwick, and educated at the City of Bath boys' school.

He studied physics and philosophy at the University of Nottingham and later studied at the universities of St Andrews, Witwatersrand and Harvard.

MI6 career

Richard Norton-Taylor notes that "It is highly unusual for a diplomat, or any outsider, to be appointed as the head – or C for chief, as he is still officially called – of MI6, Britain's secret intelligence service."

However, the BBC states that "As Downing Street coyly noted, Sir John is "rejoining" the SIS - no details were given about his previous career in MI6."

The Telegraph states that "Although he trained with MI6 at the beginning of his career, he has spent the time since as a career diplomat". However, Michael Evans' account suggests that Sawers undertook two overseas postings as an MI6 officer, presumably under diplomatic cover:

He began his career with MI6 in 1977, serving in Yemen and Syria. He then switched to the Diplomatic Service in the 1980s, following a more conventional path as a British envoy, and was appointed political director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2003.

Diplomatic career

According to an official FCO biography Sawer spent his early career working "in Yemen and Syria, and was in South Africa from 1988-91 during the first part of the transition from Apartheid. Between spells overseas, he worked in London, mainly on EU business."

For two and a half years, he served as Principal Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd. According to the Foreign Office, "The period was dominated by war in Bosnia, crises in the Middle East, and the debate in Britain on the European Union."

Sawers spent the period from 1995 to 1998 in the United States. After a year as an International Fellow at Harvard University he joined the British Embassy in Washington where he headed the Embassy team dealing with foreign and defence policy issues.

Foreign Affairs Advisor

Sawers was foreign affairs advisor to Tony Blair from January 1999 to summer 2001, a period that included the Kosovo War. He was involved in negotiations on Northern Ireland and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Egypt Ambassador

Sawers next post was as Ambassador to Cairo from 2001 to 2003.

Iraq envoy

Sawers served as a special envoy in Baghdad for three months after the invasion of Iraq. According to The Telegraph, he argued against the policy of dismissing members of the Ba'ath Party.

Foreign Office Political Director

Sawers served as Foreign Office Political Director for four years at the height of the Iraq conflict from August 2003 to August 2007.

The Foreign Office described his role as follows:

In this post he advised the Foreign Secretary on political and security issues worldwide, and negotiated on behalf of the Foreign Secretary with international partners in the G8, EU and the UN. He was particularly closely involved in policy on Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

UN representative

Sawers became the UK's permanent representative to the UN in New York in August 2007.

The BBC describes his role in the post as follows:

as an ambassador of one of the permanent five, Sir John has played a central role in the key resolutions negotiated here over the past two years - on Iran, North Korea and the Middle East.

On Sri Lanka and Burma, he has been pushing the UN to play an active role.

An Iran specialist and scientist, his press briefings on the status of Iran's nuclear programme have been known to resemble seminars on nuclear physics.

Director of MI6

Sawer was named as the new chief of MI6 on 16 June 2009. He replaced Sir John Scarlett in November 2009. Shortly after his appointment, details of Sawer's wife's Facebook account were revealed by the Mail on Sunday. The paper revealed that Lady Sawer's half-brother Hugo Haig-Thomas was an associate of right-wing historian David Irving. This led opposition spokesmen including Liberal Democrat Edward Davy and Conservative Patrick Mercer to question whether Sawers' security had been compromised.

Sawers is the first MI6 chief appointed from outside the service since Sir John Rennie in 1968, and the Facebook incident has contributed to criticism from his predecessors.

According to the Sunday Times' Anne McElvoy, former MI6 director Richard Dearlove was critical of the appointment because of Sawers' closeness to the Government. McElvoy added that:

One recently retired C has taken the unusual step of speaking out to The Sunday Times Magazine about the appointment. “It’s a dreadful mistake,” he says flatly. “The problem will be operational credibility with the troops. What kind of signal does it send if someone who was barely in the service before he left it is appointed as its head? He is dealing with people who have devoted their lives to SIS, as MI6 is formerly known.

SpyBlog suggests that because Dearlove is mentioned directly in the article "the recently retired C" may be John Scarlett.

The UPI news agency reported that Sawer and CIA head Leon Panetta had visited Riyadh in early 2010. This reportedly coincided with increased Saudi pressure on Pakistan to cooperate with the US against the Taliban.

Views

According to Richard Norton-Taylor, "Sawers is known to adopt a hard line on Iran and be sceptical about any suggestions that it does not want to build nuclear weapons."

Affiliations

• Ditchley Foundation - Governor

External Resources

• Oral Evidence, Iraq Inquiry, 10 December 2009.
• Oral Evidence, Iraq Inquiry, 16 December 2009.

 

A Document by John Sawers

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:Speech by Head of MI6	speech	28 October 2010	MI6 MI5 Society of Editors	A speech by then Director General of MI6 to The Society of Editors about the work of the SIS's and their relationship with the media.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2014	29 May 2014	1 June 2014	Denmark Copenhagen Marriott Hotel	The 62nd Bilderberg, with 136 guests, held in Copenhagen
Bilderberg/2015	11 June 2015	14 June 2015	Austria Telfs-Buchen	The 63rd meeting, 128 Bilderbergers met in Austria
Bilderberg/2016	9 June 2016	12 June 2016	Germany Dresden	The 2016 Bilderberg meeting took place in Dresden, Germany.
Bilderberg/2017	1 June 2017	4 June 2017	US Virginia Chantilly	The 65th Bilderberg Meeting
Bilderberg/2018	7 June 2018	10 June 2018	Italy Turin Hotel Torino Lingotto Congress	The 66th Bilderberg Meeting, in Turin, Italy, known for months in advance after an unprecedented leak by the Serbian government.
Bilderberg/2019	30 May 2019	2 June 2019	Switzerland Montreux	The 67th Bilderberg Meeting
Bilderberg/2022	2 June 2022	5 June 2022	US Washington DC Mandarin Oriental Hotel	The 68th Bilderberg Meeting, held in Washington DC, after an unprecedented two year hiatus during which a lot of the Bilderberg regulars were busy managing COVID-19
Bilderberg/2023	18 May 2023	21 May 2023	Portugal Lisbon Pestana Palace Hotel	The 69th Bilderberg Meeting, held in Lisbon, with 128 guests on the official list. The earliest in the year since 2009.
Munich Security Conference/2013	1 February 2013	3 February 2013	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 49th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2018	12 February 2018	14 February 2018	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 54th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2020	14 February 2020	16 February 2020	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 56th Munich Security Conference, in 2020, "welcomed an unprecedented number of high-ranking international decision-makers."

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