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Dear friends,Hullo – I hope you're all very well. I wondered if I might write about WSSG's next evening, on 20th August with Dr Bob Seely, a former MP, journalist, and British Army officer who will be talking about his brand new book on Russia's conflict with the West, which he wrote while reporting from the Ukrainian frontline.
In his The New Total War, Bob argues Russia considers itself at war with the West as well as Ukraine, and uses unconventional methods against both, from staged coups and psychological warfare to child abduction.
The book begins with Bob being hunted by a Russian drone while in eastern Ukraine, and introduces figures such as Ksenia, a seventeen year-old journeying through Russia searching for her abducted younger brother, and Panoushka, a sniper who continues fighting despite the loss of her fiancé.
Our speaker has spent much of his life thinking about Russia. From 1990 to 1995, he reported for The Times and Washington Post, covering the collapse of the Soviet Union while living in Kyiv. He afterwards wrote a first book, Deadly Embrace, on Russia's role in the Caucasus as a fellow at Brown University, returning after to journalism to work for the Associated Press.
He spent from 2008 to 2017 as a soldier in the British Army and Intelligence Corps, all of it as a mobilised or full-term reserve service reservist. He first served in Basra during Op TELIC 12 and 13, serving afterwards in Afghanistan, Libya, and the campaign against ISIS. He received a Joint Commanders Commendation in 2009 and an MBE in 2016, only afterwards commissioning as a captain.
After serving as a county councillor for four years, he served as MP for the Isle of Wight from 2017 to 2024, serving on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, the Committees on Arms export Controls, and later as chair of the APPG on Ukraine.
In his spare time he managed to complete a doctorate, in International Security Studies from King's College London, in 2022, on Uniting Ways of War for Perpetual Conflict: An Examination of Contemporary Russian Warfare.
We will be in a club in St James's, with champagne before and port after for purposes of hydration. After, some of us will retire to Ronnie Scott's for further foreign policy deliberations.
We are happy to order copies of our speaker's book and have them ready at dinner, for those who might like a copy. I suspect Bob would be very happy to sign them.
Thanks very much to all who attended our dinner several weeks ago with former intelligence officer Christopher Steele, about his new book Unredacted.
Looking ahead, 17th September, we will have Dr Ole Diehl, deputy head of Germany's foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, for some reason often shortened to BND. Germany's new ambassador will attempt to join us, too.
Then at the end of October, we will have a film night for Amnesty, screening Mr Nobody Against Putin. which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award.
This will be my send-off to run the New York Marathon, for Amnesty. I will also host a screening of the film in New York on 2 November, at a pub near the Central Park finish line, after I complete the marathon–which based on my current training progress may be sometime between 10 pm and midnight.
with all very warmest wishes,
Paddy
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
St James's Square, London, United Kingdom
