Oxford University is honouring Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Louise Richardson’s tenure at Oxford with a newly endowed Chair focused on Global Security.

The Dame Louise Richardson Chair in Global Security, based at the Blavatnik School, will build on the School’s expertise in international law, economics, philosophy and government, and its wide-ranging engagement with leading scholars and practitioners on issues from cyber security to reducing state fragility.

Focused on critical priorities in global security such as the proliferation of nuclear weapons, terrorism, ethics of warfare and international law, the Chair will lead global collaborative research and build on the School’s growing outreach to current public leaders through short courses and global workshops.

The Dame Louise Richardson Chair in Global Security will enable the University more powerfully to bring together research across departments to contribute to global security policy.

“I’m deeply touched that a number of generous donors came forward to create this chair in recognition of my time as Vice-Chancellor. I could not hope for a more fitting gift than to ensure that the critically important issue of global security is researched and taught by talented academics at Oxford for generations to come,” said Professor Dame Louise Richardson.

The Chair was launched during an event at the Blavatnik School of Government opened by The Chancellor of the University of Oxford, The Rt Hon the Lord Patten of Barnes, CH., and followed by a panel discussion entitled ‘A dangerous world – The future of global security’.

In the opening remarks, the Chancellor Lord Patten said of Professor Dame Louise Richardson: “Before she was a distinguished Vice Chancellor, she was a great teacher and a great scholar”; through her work and her scholarship around terrorism and global security, she provided “an extraordinary contribution to public policy”.

Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School, said: “We want to thank Professor Richardson for her leadership of the University but also for her contributions as a scholar and for what we know about security and how we think about global security. I hope she will continue to help inspire us in this domain as we begin building this Chair and a programme in global security.”

The opening remarks were followed by a panel discussion entitled 'A dangerous world – The future of global security' featuring:

• Professor Dapo Akande, Professor of Public International Law, Blavatnik School of Government; Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC).
• Professor Neta Crawford, Montague Burton Professor of International Relations and Professorial Fellow at Balliol College.
• Ciaran Martin, Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organisations, Blavatnik School of Government; former Chief Executive of the UK National Cyber Security Centre.
• Tom Simpson, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College.

The recording of the opening remarks and the panel discussion is available on our YouTube channel, The Dame Louise Richardson Chair in Global Security: Panel discussion – A dangerous world.

About the Vice Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson

Professor Louise Richardson became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford on 1 January 2016, having previously served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, Scotland, for seven years. On 2 June 2022, Louise Richardson was appointed a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in recognition of her service to Higher Education.

Professor Richardson’s research specialises in international security with a particular emphasis on terrorist movements. She has written widely on international terrorism, British foreign and defence policy, security institutions, and international relations. Her publications include Democracy and Counterterrorism: Lessons from the Past (2007), What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat (2006), The Roots of Terrorism (2006), and When Allies Differ (1996).