Sir Robert John Sawers (born 26 July 1955) is a British intelligence officer, diplomat and civil servant.
[14] He returned to London and took up the roles of Head of European Union Presidency Planning Unit in 1991 and Principal Private Secretary to Douglas Hurd in 1993.
[11] From 1995 to 1998 he was in the United States and spent a year as an International Fellow at Harvard University[11] and later at the British Embassy in Washington D.C., where he headed the Foreign and Defence Policy team.
He reviewed the Iraq sanctions policy during this period and issued a document that included consideration of regime change.
[11] In August 2003 Sawers returned to London and was appointed as the Director General for Political Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
[1] In July 2009 his family details were removed from the social networking site Facebook following media interest in the contents.
[22] During the Syrian Civil War Sawers supported the Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards in drawing up plans to train and equip a Syrian rebel army of 100,000 to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, as an alternative option to the government's plan for limited direct military involvement.
[24] Sawers announced his intention to stand down from running the Secret Intelligence Service by November 2014, the fifth anniversary of his appointment.