Sir Brian Leon Barder KCMG (20 June 1934 – 19 September 2017)[1] was a British diplomat, author, blogger and civil liberties advocate.

He became First Secretary and Press Attaché, Moscow (Soviet Union) (1971–73); and Counsellor and Head of Chancery, British High Commission, Canberra (Australia) (1973–77).

He played a key role in making possible the deployment of the Royal Air Force to Ethiopia for 14 months to move relief supplies from the ports to remote parts of the country where it was urgently needed.

[4] In 2009 he took part in a BBC Radio 4 programme which brought together some of the key people involved in the Ethiopian famine including International Red Cross nurse Claire Bertschinger (now Dame Claire); BBC reporter Michael Buerk; Dawit Wolde Giorgis, former head of the Ethiopian Relief and Rehabilitation Commission; and Hugh Goyder, former head of Oxfam's Ethiopia programme.

[5] After retirement, Barder served on the Commonwealth Observer Mission, Namibian elections (1994); and as a Chair of Civil Service Selection Boards (1995–96).

[8] The Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001 made SIAC additionally responsible for hearing appeals by persons indefinitely detained without trial by the Home Secretary on suspicion of being connected with terrorism but who could not be deported because there was no country to which they could safely be sent.

He had articles and letters published in The Political Quarterly,[10] London Review of Books,[7] Prospect,[11] The Times, The Guardian, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy,[12] and elsewhere.