Des Browne

Des Browne    (politician)
Born	1952-03-22 Kilwinning, Scotland
Alma mater	University of Glasgow
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Member of	European Leadership Network, Nuclear Threat Initiative
Party	Labour
Bought nuclear missiles as UK Secretary of State for Defence, campaigns for nuclear disarmament after leaving power.  Secretary of State for Scotland  In office 28 June 2007 - 3 October 2008 Succeeded by Jim Murphy  Secretary of State for Defence In office 5 May 2006 - 3 October 2008 Preceded by John Reid Succeeded by John Hutton  Chief Secretary to the Treasury  In office 6 May 2005 - 5 May 2006 Preceded by Paul Boateng Succeeded by Stephen Timms  Minister of State for Immigration Citizenship and Counterterrorism In office 1 April 2004 - 6 May 2005  Minister of State for Work & Pensions In office May 2003 - 1 April 2004  Parliamentary under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland In office May 2001 - May 2003  Member of Parliament for Kilmarnock and Loudoun In office 2 May 1997 - 12 April 2010

Des Browne is a former Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury (May 2005 - May 2006), Secretary of State for Defence (May 2006 - Oct 2008), and Scottish Secretary (Jun 2007 - Oct 2008).

Government minister

After the 2001 general election Browne entered Tony Blair's government as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office. He was promoted to Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions in 2003, before moving to the Home Office in 2004 as the minister with responsibility for immigration. He joined the Cabinet following the 2005 general election as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and became a Member of the Privy Council.

Browne was appointed Secretary of State for Defence on 5 May 2006.

An advocate of the UK Trident programme, in 2007 he successfully persuaded Parliament to vote to replace Trident nuclear missiles.

He came under criticism after allowing the Royal Navy personnel captured by Iran in spring 2007 to sell and publish their stories. Under Tony Blair's premiership, Browne was considered a supporter of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. He received the additional responsibilities of Secretary of State for Scotland in June 2007 after Brown became Prime Minister.

Activities after leaving government

Browne is vice chairman of the Washington, DC-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization founded in 2001 by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, who serves as co-chair and CEO, and CNN founder and philanthropist Ted Turner. NTI's stated mission is to strengthen global security by reducing the risk of use and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Browne is convener of the European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation. and he is also convenor of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009.

He is a signatory of Global Zero, a non-profit international initiative for the elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide.

Browne was awarded a peerage in the dissolution honours list on 28 May 2010.

Controversy over appointment as envoy to Sri Lanka

In February 2009, Browne was appointed by PM Brown as the government's special envoy to Sri Lanka. However, the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, fighting the LTTE rebel group, rejected Browne's appointment, stating that the British government made the appointment unilaterally, without consultation with the Sri Lankan government.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Munich Security Conference/2011	4 February 2011	6 February 2011	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 47th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2012	3 February 2012	5 February 2012	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 48th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2013	1 February 2013	3 February 2013	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 49th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2014	31 January 2014	2 February 2014	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 50th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2015	6 February 2015	8 February 2015	Germany Munich Bavaria	"400 high-ranking decision-makers in international politics, including some 20 heads of state and government as well as more than 60 foreign and defence ministers, met in Munich to discuss current crises and conflicts."
Munich Security Conference/2016	12 February 2016	14 February 2016	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 52nd Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2017	17 February 2017	19 February 2017	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 53rd Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2018	12 February 2018	14 February 2018	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 54th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2019	15 February 2019	17 February 2019	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 55th Munich Security Conference, which included "A Spreading Plague" aimed at "identifying gaps and making recommendations to improve the global system for responding to deliberate, high consequence biological events."
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."
Munich Security Conference/2022	18 February 2022	20 February 2022	Germany Munich Bavaria
Munich Security Conference/2023	17 February 2023	19 February 2023	Germany Munich Bavaria	Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists. The real decisions are made by deep politicians behind the scenes, elsewhere.
Munich Security Conference/2024	16 February 2024	18 February 2024	Germany Munich Bavaria	Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists - in their own bubble, far from the concerns of their subjects

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