A three-day residential conference from Churchill Archives Centre
March 9-11, 2026: Cambridge, UK
This conference is for leaders and aspiring leaders. It brings them together with historians, practitioners, policymakers and analysts: speakers who have held prominent positions in US National Intelligence, UK Armed Forces, British Cabinet Office, NATO and more. It aims to provide context and to create a better framework for understanding and harnessing the complex links between past, present and future.
“Last time I saw it all coming and cried aloud to my own fellow-countrymen and the world, but no one paid any attention.”
What can we learn from the past and how?
What are the main geopolitical risks facing the world today? Where do they come from? How are they best identified, prioritised and managed?
In Fulton, Missouri on 5 March 1946, Winston Churchill gave an address entitled ‘The Sinews of Peace’. He warned of an ‘iron curtain’ descending across the European continent and called for a strengthening of the Western alliance against Soviet expansionism. His remarks were delivered at a time of heightened international tension, in the aftermath of the Second World War and in the shadow of the atomic bomb.
Eighty years on, the global outlook seems equally challenging as the leaders of today grapple with the rise of totalitarianism, the resurgence of nationalism, the pace of new technology, and the risks posed by a rapidly changing world.
Our outstanding line-up of speakers and panellists includes:
- Lord (Nicholas) Soames: Former Minister of State for the Armed Forces, UK and grandson of Sir Winston Churchill
- Secretary Michael Chertoff: Former United States Secretary of Homeland Security
- Admiral Michael McConnell: Former Director of US National Intelligence
- General Lord Dannatt: Former Chief of the General Staff, British Army
- Sir David Spiegelhalter: Former Winton Professor of the
Public Understanding of Risk - Dame Diane Coyle: Research Director at the Bennett School of Public Policy
- Professor David Reynolds: Professor of International History
- Professor Sharon Peacock: Professor of Public Health and Microbiology
- Anders Fogh Rasmussen Secretary General of NATO 2009-2014 and former Prime Minister of Denmark
- Lord (Andrew) Roberts: Historian and journalist
Lord (Nicholas) Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill, who will open the conference, commented:
“It is now 80 years since my grandfather’s ‘iron curtain’ speech in which he warned of the dangers confronting the post war world and outlined the need for ‘sinews of peace’. I am delighted that his words will form the starting point for this conference, looking at global risk today.”
There will be an opportunity to tour the Churchill Archives Centre and view some of our most celebrated documents and artefacts, and the conference includes a dinner in the Dining Hall of Churchill College, hosted The Master, Professor Sharon Peacock.
