Des Browne
 Des Browne     (politician) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 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.
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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).[1]
Contents
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.[2] Under Tony Blair's premiership, Browne was considered a supporter of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.[3] 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.[4] and he is also convenor of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009.[5][6]
He is a signatory of Global Zero, a non-profit international initiative for the elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide.[7][8]
Browne was awarded a peerage in the dissolution honours list on 28 May 2010.[9]
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.[10]
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 | Slightly less than 1/3 of the 664 of the participants have pages here |
| 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 |
References
- ↑ Des Browne: Electoral history and profile, guardian.co.uk, accessed 28 May 2010.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090327002951/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4977660.stm
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1184117,00.html |
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110726042056/http://www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org/des-browne_67.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/08/nuclear-disarmament-cross-party-group
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20101203074650/http://www.basicint.org/publications/des-browne/2010/nuclear-policy-paper-no3
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110513205939/http://www.globalzero.org/files/pdf/NYT_Jun29_09_AP_Syndicated.pdf
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110728005425/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7774584.stm
- ↑ Peerages, honours and appointments, number10.gov.uk, 28 May 2010.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090213214657/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7887853.stm
