Patrick Turner
Senior Advisor
Mr. Patrick Turner is a Senior Advisor at The Cohen Group. He is a member of The Cohen Group’s Defense and Europe practices, in addition to the Ukraine working group. He supports clients in a broad range of sectors, including those seeking to identify and build opportunities in Europe and at NATO, with strategy development, geopolitical analysis, stakeholder engagement, and business development.
Prior to joining The Cohen Group in December 2022, Mr. Turner worked for the UK Government and for NATO for 38 years after having joined the UK Ministry of Defence in 1984. He was the Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning at NATO from 2018 to 2022, and chaired NATO’s Defence Policy and Planning Committee and its Resilience Committee. He focused on increasing defense spending by Allies, improving Allies’ defense capabilities, strengthening the force structure and military posture of NATO and Allies, and assuring NATO’s nuclear deterrent capability.
From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Turner was the NATO Assistant Secretary General for Operations, responsible for advising on NATO’s operations and missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo, and planning and exercising for the defense of Allies. He was the chair of NATO’s Operations Policy Committee. From 2011 to 2015, he was the UK’s Deputy Ambassador to NATO. In the 1990s, he served in the Private Office of three NATO Secretaries General (Manfred Worner, Willy Claes, and Javier Solana).
Mr. Turner was the Minister Counsellor for Defense at the British Embassy in Washington, DC from 2008 to 2010. Prior to that, Mr. Turner led a team in the UK Cabinet Office which produced the first UK national security strategy in 2008. He led a team in the UK Ministry of Defence that worked on the renewal of the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent from 2005 to 2007. He was Director of Defence Policy in the UK Ministry of Defence from 1999 to 2002 and led work on the UK’s defense response to the September 11 attacks. He had previously helped to implement the UK’s 1998 Strategic Defence Review.
Mr. Turner has held a variety of other roles throughout his career, including: Private Secretary for the Minister for the Armed Forces; Private Secretary to the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service; head of a team building new defense relationships between the UK, former Warsaw Pact countries, and the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s; work on the Navy’s and Army’s programs and budgets; and work on SOF and intelligence operations.
Mr. Turner studied history at Merton College, Oxford. He now lives in McLean, Virginia with his family. In addition to his work with The Cohen Group, he is a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.