Alumni and guests are invited to join the Norfolk Cambridge Society for their upcoming lecture.

The proposition that force and threats of force are a necessary instrument of diplomacy and have a role to play in foreign policy is part of the conventional wisdom of statecraft. History, and recent experience, support the view that efforts to deal with conflicts between states solely by means of peaceful diplomacy do not always succeed. Sometimes force can only be countered by force, or the threat of force, and its use is not as discretionary as we might like to believe. How ready must one be, therefore, to threaten or use force to avoid war and what are the pitfalls to watch for when one does? General Chalmers will address these questions and many others relevant to the theory and practice of using military force. Examples will be drawn both from historic conflicts and today's situation in Ukraine.

General Chalmers was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and educated at Reddam House, Berkshire. He joined the British Army in 1984 as a private and was commissioned into the Royal Irish Rangers in October 1986. Later he was awarded an MA from the United States Army's School of Advanced Military Studies and an MPhil from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was appointed commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment in July 2007 and, in that role, was deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He went on to become commander of the 12th Mechanised Brigade in October 2011 and was deployed as commander of Task Force Helmand in April 2012. In October 2013 he became Chief of the Defence Staff's Liaison Officer to the United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in August 2014 Assistant Chief of Staff (Operations) at Permanent Joint Headquarters and, from 2018 to 2021, he served as Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff.

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