Military and War - Bob Stewart
Bob Stewart was the first British United Nations Commander in Bosnia and has completed considerable service in Northern Ireland as an infantry and intelligence officer. He has also experienced policy making at the highest military levels during three years as Military Assistant to NATO’s Senior Military Officer in Brussels and a further two years as Chief of Policy at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe.
The son of an RAF Officer, Bob was selected for officer training when he was seventeen years old. After training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, he was commissioned as an infantry officer in The Cheshire Regiment in 1969. Four years later the Army sent him to the School of International Politics at the University of Wales where he obtained a First Class Degree in International Politics and Strategy.
Returning to full-time Army service in 1977, Bob first became an intelligence officer in Northern Ireland before being sent back to Sandhurst as an instructor. Two years later he attended the Army Staff College at Camberley for fifteen months before once again returning to Northern Ireland, this time as an infantry company commander. On 6 December 1982, as incident commander, he was responsible for controlling and responding to a terrorist bomb at Ballykelly. The bomb killed seventeen people – six of them being soldiers from his own Company. For his actions he was officially commended by the General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland.
Over the next seven years Bob carried out a series of appointments. He served in Military Operations within the Ministry of Defence, attended the Joint Services Staff College and was Second in Command of his Battalion. Then he became Military Assistant (Lieutenant Colonel) to the Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee in Brussels and was responsible for drafting the first speech made by the most senior NATO officer within the Soviet Ministry of Defence in Moscow.
In March 1991 he assumed command of 1st Battalion the Cheshire Regiment. As Commanding Officer he carried out two further operational tours: to Northern Ireland again and as the first British Commander under United Nations command in Bosnia during 1992-93. On returning from Bosnia he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry and leadership. Promoted to Colonel he then became Chief of Policy at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe..
Bob Stewart left the British Army in September 1995 to become Senior Consultant in the Public Affairs and Corporate Policy Division of Hill & Knowlton (UK) Ltd. In May 1998 he was appointed Managing Director of WorldSpace UK Ltd, a digital radio satellite broadcasting company that operates in the Developing World. Thereafter, in October 2001, he founded a consultancy which specialises in leadership, intelligence, crisis management, and negotiation. From 2004-2005 as a consultant he became Director Risk Analysis for Group 4 Securicor Global Risks Ltd which specialises in business within difficult countries, emergency evacuations of business people from dangerous situations as well as kidnap for ransom negotiations.
Frequently contributing to newspapers and current affairs journals, his book ‘Broken Lives’, about command during the Balkan War, was a best seller. As a defence analyst he has often appeared on television for the BBC, SKY and occasionally CNN as well as being the anchor ITV News Channel commentator during the last Gulf War. Recently he presented a 60 minute BBC
