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In this episode of Dictators v Democrats: Why We Fight, Theo Allthorpe-Mullis is joined by Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE, one of the UK’s leading authorities on chemical weapons and modern deterrence.
Drawing on more than three decades of service and frontline experience, Hamish reflects on why he joined the British Army, what service means in a democracy, and how Syria shaped his understanding of power, responsibility and Western failure. The conversation moves from the broken “red lines” of 2013 to their consequences today, examining how inaction over chemical weapons emboldened authoritarian regimes and reshaped Russian behaviour in Ukraine.
The discussion also covers the confirmed use of chemical agents on the Ukrainian battlefield, the risks of escalation, and what a credible Western response would look like. From NATO deterrence and Article 5, to national resilience, military service and the quiet erosion of democratic confidence at home, this is a wide-ranging and unsparing look at the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.
Show Notes
- Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE on growing up in a family shaped by military service and why he chose the Army
- What “service” actually means in a democracy, and why serving the nation is not the same as serving a government
- Syria as the defining experience: witnessing chemical warfare, civilian suffering, and Western reluctance to act
- The failure to enforce the chemical weapons red line in 2013 and how it shaped Putin’s calculations
- Why Syria matters to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Europe more broadly
- Russian aggression and the long shadow of Western hesitation
- The use of chemical agents in Ukraine, including chloropicrin and riot control agents delivered by drones
- How chemical weapons are being used tactically to force Ukrainian soldiers out of trenches
- The risk of escalation to more lethal nerve agents, and why the taboo is weaker than many assume
- What a credible response to chemical weapons use would look like without crossing the nuclear threshold
- NATO, Article 5, and whether deterrence still holds in an era of ambiguity and hybrid warfare
- Europe’s readiness, defence spending, and the question of seized Russian assets
- Why authoritarian systems are still widely misunderstood in the West
- Democracy’s internal vulnerabilities, from political extremes to public disengagement
- Advice to young people considering military service, and to societies reluctant to prepare for war
- Why strength and preparedness remain the best way to prevent conflict
- A final message to dictators and authoritarians, and the limits of trying to “buy off” ideologues
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