17 November 2026 – Rich Hunt & George Ellis

Keeping Britain safe

Risks, threats, and how to manage them

To keep Britain safe, we must combat threats as well as risks. But what is the distinction?

Threats, which are human driven, only exist where there is a both an adversarial intent and capability to harm the UK. There is no shortage of those from state actors, terrorists, and criminals, sometimes all three acting in unison.

Risks can be natural or man-made but pose just as great a danger, and can be self-inflicted through poor leadership and decision-making. Misguided policy and miscalculation have always presented a grave risk to the UK’s security and Rich and George will argue from their combined experience in UK intelligence that this remains the case today.

Richard (Rich) J P F Hunt

Rich joined Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK’s signals intelligence, security, and cyber agency, in 1979 after graduating from the University of Bristol with a degree in History. His entire forty years career in GCHQ was spent in operations, including intelligence analysis, support to military operations, 24-hour watch-keeping, counter terrorism, cyber security, and team leadership. Rich was awarded the OBE in 2006 for service to the national security of the UK.

The threat is more sophisticated and diverse now thanks to complex communications technologies, Rich says, but the basic challenge remains the same: understand your adversary’s capability and, if possible, their intent, all without them knowing.

George Ellis

George Ellis graduated from Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1980 with a degree in Land Economy and joined the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) where he spent a 35 year civilian career. Starting as an intelligence analyst he went on to fill a wide range of operational, policy and senior leadership positions. Immediately post-retirement, he was invited to join the UK’s Specialist Group Military Intelligence (SGMI) as an Army Reserve officer, serving for 8 years as a Subject Matter Expert. He has also engaged with academia on Russian military matters, including producing a detailed analysis of Russia’s military campaign in Syria that was published by the Changing Character of Warfare Centre, Pembroke College, Oxford, in 2018.

He currently conducts studies of, and provides commentaries on, Russian official open-source material that provides insights into Russia’s strategic drivers, objectives, military developments, preparedness and capability modernisation efforts. Drawing on his Cold War experience, he can contextualise current change against longer term issues and problems faced by the Russian military and how the UK should respond.