Richard Barrett (counter-terrorism expert)


Richard Martin Donne Barrett CMG OBE is a former British diplomat and intelligence officer now involved in countering violent extremism. Barrett is a recognised global expert on terrorism who frequently appears as a panellist in related conferences and whose commentary is regularly featured in the press.

Biography

Barrett was born in Taplow and was educated at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire. In 1973, he was awarded a Master of Arts in Modern History and Italian Literature from University College, Oxford.
From March 2004 to January 2013 Barrett led the Monitoring Team that supports the United Nations Security Council Committee pursuant to resolution 1267 concerning Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities. Mr. Barrett was also a founding member of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, which was established in 2005 to promote the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the General Assembly in 2006. He chaired the CTITF Working Group on Terrorist use of the Internet and the CTITF Working Group on Dialogue Understanding and Countering the Appeal of Terrorism.
Barrett has been designated as one of the Global Experts of the Alliance of Civilizations, a group of recognised expert commentators available to the media to provide objective analysis on a range of pressing international issues. He has spoken frequently on television and radio, and his interviews have been featured on Amanpour and Charlie Rose. He is the author of several articles and commentaries including op-eds for The Guardian, The New York Times, The Financial Times and The International Herald Tribune.
Before being appointed to lead the Monitoring Team, Barrett spent his career in government service to the United Kingdom. He has held positions in the British Security Service and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Barrett also served as Director of Global Counter Terrorism Operations for the British Secret Intelligence Service both before and after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.
He has served abroad in Canada, Jordan, Turkey and the United States.
Barrett sits on the boards of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague; the Transnational Crisis Project; the Global Center on Cooperative Security; The Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad, The Qatar International Academy for Security Studies in Doha and The Center for the Study of United Nations Systems and the Global Legal Order.
Barrett was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1992 and Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2013 Birthday Honours.
Barrett was author of at least one ICSR report.

Career as opinionist