Richard Moore (diplomat)

Last updated

Maggie Martin
​
(m. 1985)​
Sir
Richard Moore
KCMG
Richard Moore Portrait.jpg
Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 October 2020
Children2
Education Worcester College, Oxford (BA)
Harvard University
Website X Profile

Sir Richard Peter Moore KCMG (born 9 May 1963) is a British civil servant, currently chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and formerly Director General for Political Affairs, at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, [1] [2] [3] and previously the British ambassador to Turkey. [1]

Contents

Education

Moore attended St George's College, Weybridge, an independent school in Surrey. [3] Afterwards, he studied philosophy, politics and economics at Worcester College, Oxford, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts. [1] He then won a Kennedy Scholarship to study at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University. [1] In 2007, he attended the Stanford Executive Program. [1]

Career

Moore's career has been as an MI6 Intelligence Officer through diplomatic cover in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and His Majesty's Diplomatic Service. [3] He had postings to Vietnam in 1988, Turkey from 1990 to 1992, in London as Desk Officer for Iran from 1992 to 1995, Pakistan from 1995 to 1998 and Malaysia from 2001 to 2005. [1] [4] He was the section head of the Security Policy Group at the FCDO from 1998 to 2001 and Deputy Director of the Middle East from 2005 to 2008. [3]

Moore, more recently, transitioned to a mainstream diplomatic career in the FCO, leaving MI6, and becoming Director for Programmes and Change from 2008 to 2010, and then Director for Europe, Latin America and Globalization from 2010 to 2012. [1] [3]

Moore's first prominent appointment was as Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Turkey. He held this post from 2014 to 2017. [1] He spent a short period of time on secondment to the Cabinet Office working as Deputy National Security Advisor (Intelligence, Security and Resilience) in 2018. [3] He then became Director-General, Political in the FCDO from 2018 until August 2020. [1] [3] On the 29 July 2020, it was announced that Moore would become Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in autumn 2020. [4] [5] He took up this position on the 1 October of the same year. [6]

Moore was the first member of the British secret service to openly use X (formerly Twitter), when on 2 October 2020 his tweets from his first day as Chief of MI6 made the news for their humorous hashtags and emojis. [6] [7]

On 5 May 2021 Moore announced that MI6 had begun "green spying" to investigate secretly if foreign nations were genuinely keeping to their emission reduction commitments in order to tackle climate change. [8] [9]

In February 2021, Moore apologised publicly to MI6 officers who were dismissed from the agency under the ban on LGBT staff prior to 1991, and called the policy "wrong, unjust and discriminatory". [10]

In July 2023, Moore stated that the Chinese government and Xi Jinping were "absolutely complicit" in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [11]

In September 2024 Moore stated that international world order is "under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War". [12]

Speaking in November 2024, after the US presidential election, Moore suggested that abandoning Ukraine's war would mean "infinitely higher" longer term costs. He added "If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there. Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic – will be jeopardised." [13]

Personal life

Richard Moore was born in Tripoli, Libya, on 9 May 1963. [3] He married Margaret Martin (Maggie) in 1985, with whom he has had a son and a daughter. [3]

Moore's grandfather Jack Buckley served as a soldier of the Irish Republican Army from 1916 to 1922 in Cork, Ireland, and was awarded a medal by Sinn Féin for fighting against British rule. [14]

He is fluent in Turkish. [15] Moore was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to UK/Turkey relations [16] and Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to national security and British foreign policy. [17]

Moore was a member of the Garrick Club, [18] but resigned his membership on 20 March 2024. [19]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Richard Moore CMG". HM Government . Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  2. ↑ British Embassy Beirut. "FCO Political Director in Lebanon, discusses security". HM Government . Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Moore, Richard Peter. Who's Who 2020. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U268831. ISBN   978-0-19-954088-4 . Retrieved 14 April 2020.(subscription required)
  4. 1 2 Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Dominic Raab. "Appointment of the new Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)". HM Government . Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  5. ↑ "MI6: Richard Moore named as new head of Secret Intelligence Service". BBC News . 29 July 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  6. 1 2 "MI6 chief marks first day in office with emoji-laden tweets". the Guardian. 2 October 2020. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "Tweeting MI6 chief Richard Moore reveals modern face of not-so-secret service". The National. 2 October 2020. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  8. ↑ "MI6 'green spying' on biggest polluters to ensure nations keep climate change promises". Sky News. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  9. ↑ "The world is hot enough: MI6 has started spying on climate polluters". New Scientist. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  10. ↑ "MI6 boss apologises for past ban on LGBT staff". The Guardian. 19 February 2021.
  11. ↑ Anderlini, Jamil; Vinocur, Nicholas (19 July 2023). "China 'complicit' in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, MI6 chief tells POLITICO". Politico Europe .
  12. ↑ "World order 'under threat not seen since Cold War'". BBC News. 7 September 2024. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  13. ↑ Sabbagh, Dan (29 November 2024). "Abandoning Ukraine means 'infinitely higher' long-term security costs, MI6 chief says" – via The Guardian.
  14. ↑ Fitsanakis, Joseph (3 August 2020). "Grandfather of new MI6 boss was IRA fighter who won medals in war with Britain". intelNews.org. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  15. ↑ "Ex-Ambassador Made Head of British Intelligence Service MI6". The New York Times . Associated Press. 29 July 2020. Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  16. ↑ "Order of Saint Michael and Saint George - Richard Peter Moore". The Gazette. 31 December 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  17. ↑ "No. 64082". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 June 2023. p. B3.
  18. ↑ Gentleman, Amelia; Walker, Peter; Mason, Rowena (19 March 2024). "UK's top civil servant and head of MI6 urged to quit Garrick Club". The Guardian .
  19. ↑ Gentleman, Amelia (20 March 2024). "MI6 chief resigns Garrick membership after criticism". Guardian. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by British Ambassador to Turkey
2014–2017		Succeeded by
Preceded by Director General for Political Affairs at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
2018–2020		Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service
2020–Present		Incumbent
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