PUBLIC SPEAKING
Decision-making under pressure
Charlie Stuart speaks to military, government, diplomatic, academic and business audiences about decision-making under pressure: how people and organisations understand rapidly changing situations, make decisions with incomplete information, and adapt when reality diverges from the plan.
Drawing on more than three decades of military, legal, security and diplomatic experience, together with his research into conflict and command, his talks connect historical case studies with the enduring problems faced by leaders and organisations today.
EXPERIENCE BEHIND THE IDEAS
The author’s perspective has been shaped not only by studying consequential decisions, but by working in environments in which such decisions must be made amid uncertainty, pressure and imperfect information.
A career spanning military service, law, international security and diplomacy has included service during the 1991 Gulf War and in Northern Ireland; four years living and working in Iraq; and work across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, including Afghanistan, North Korea, Russia, China, Somalia, the Caucasus, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iran, India and Pakistan.
This experience informs a recurring question in his speaking and writing: why are some individuals and organisations able to absorb disruption, adapt and recover, while others are overwhelmed by it? The question lies at the heart of Hold at All Costs, which examines how American units in the Ardennes endured surprise, confusion, severe pressure and loss, and, in crucial places, continued to fight.
“The question isn’t simply why the German offensive failed. It is why it failed in the way it did.”
— Charlie Stuart
POPULAR TOPICS
Decision-Making
Under Pressure
How leaders make consequential decisions when information is incomplete, time is limited and circumstances are changing.
When The Plan
Meets Reality
Why sophisticated plans unravel — and what determines whether organisations recognise and adapt to change quickly enough.
Friction, Uncertainty
and Command
What conflict reveals about communication, perception, judgement and the widening gap between what headquarters believes is happening and events on the ground.
Brittle Systems,
Adaptive Systems
Why some organisations absorb disruption while others become progressively less capable of responding to it.
Hold At All Costs:
Chaos and Consequence in the Bulge
A new interpretation of the Battle of the Bulge examining how countless interactions between terrain, weather, logistics, timing, human judgement, resistance and chance shaped the offensive.
HISTORY AS A LABORATORY
Charlie Stuart uses history not to extract simplistic ‘lessons,’ but as a laboratory for examining decisions made under conditions of uncertainty.
By reconstructing what people knew, believed and could realistically have done at the time, he uses historical cases to explore contemporary questions of leadership, strategy, organisational resilience and adaptation, without the distortion of hindsight.
SELECTED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Government &
International Organisations
- Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution
- Belgium’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training
- European Security & Defence College
- Finland’s Crisis Management Centre
- Germany’s Zentrum für International Friedenseinsätze (Zif)
- Greece’s Institute of Research & Training on European Affairs
- Hungarian Institute for International Studies
- Portugal’s National Defence Institute
- Romanian National College of Home Affairs
- Romania’s National Defence College
- Slovenia’s Centre for European Perspective
- Spain’s National Defence Advanced Studies Centre (CESEDEN)
- Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Universities &
Academic Institutions
- Belgium’s Egmont Institute
- College of Europe
- Hungary’s National Public Service University
- Marlborough College, England
- Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy
- University of Dar es Salaam
- United World College of East Africa, Tanzania
- United World College of the Atlantic, Wales
- U.S.’s Georgia Gwinnett College
- U.S.’s Point Loma Nazarene University
- U.S.’s University of California, San Diego
Public & Professional
Organisations
- European Institute for Security Studies, Brussels
- Guest moderator for Literary Events at TheMerode Club, Brussels
- International Meeting of Mine Action National Programme Directors, Geneva
- Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), London
- The Victory Show
Corporate &
Professional Organisations
- M&C Saatchi Global Services
RECENT & UPCOMING ENGAGEMENTS
Bulge — Attrition, Munition and Friction
Leicestershire LE9 1SG
The Victory Show – History Tent
View event →The Battle of the Bulge: The German Plan Doomed to Fail from Inception
Leicestershire LE9 1SG
In conversation with Crispin Thomas,
The Standup Historian
Fraternelle des Agents Parachutistes
Further event details to be confirmed.
View event →For previous events, speaking engagements and photos.
SEE PREVIOUS EVENTS →Charlie Stuart is available for keynote talks, lectures, panel discussions and moderated conversations for military, government, diplomatic, academic and business audiences.