[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 113 (Monday, July 11, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S3199]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO EDWARD FERGUSON

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I come to the floor of the Senate to honor 
an important member of Her Majesty's diplomatic service, Mr. Edward 
Ferguson. Edward has been the latest in a long line of impressive 
British diplomats who have furthered the Special Relationship between 
the United Kingdom and United States.
  Edward has served as the Minister Counsellor for Defence at British 
Embassy in Washington, DC. The Minister Counsellor is the senior 
Ministry of Defence--MOD--civil servant in the embassy. This position 
is responsible for aspects of the bilateral defense relationship, 
paying close attention to defense strategy; security and operational 
policy; acquisition and trade.
  Since arriving in September 2018, Edward has played a pivotal role in 
further strengthening the already indispensable United States-United 
Kingdom defense relationship. As the UK's senior policy adviser on 
defense relations with the United States, he was responsible for United 
Kingdom-United States collaboration on strategic planning, nuclear 
policy and programmes, trade and acquisition, and science and 
technology. He can point to a number of significant successes on his 
watch, not least the signing of the Australia-United Kingdom-United 
States--AUKUS--Agreement.
  Prior to his service at the British Embassy Washington, Edward served 
as Her Majesty's Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2014 to 
2018, where he created and led a new international strategy, co-
launched by the British and German Foreign Ministers, that re-energised 
Euro-Atlantic integration after years of stagnation, while stimulating 
economic growth and reducing high levels of youth unemployment.
  From 2011 to 2014, Edward was Head of Defence Strategy and 
Priorities, where he led two teams, one responsible for leading the 
MOD's contribution to developing the 2015 National Security Strategy 
and the Strategic Defence and Security Review and the other for 
prioritising the MOD's international defence engagement activities.
  A former exhibitioner and choral scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, 
where he was also treasurer of the Oxford Union, Edward graduated with 
first class honours in classics in 2001. In 2013, he graduated from the 
London School of Economics and Political Science with an MSc with 
distinction in strategy and diplomacy. He has been a member of the 
Royal College of Defence Studies--RCDS--strategic advisory panel, a 
member of the US Air Force Grand Strategy Advisory Board, and is a 
graduate of the PINNACLE Command and Staff course at National Defense 
University--NDU.
  Edward has served in numerous roles within the Ministry of Defence, 
starting out in the Iraq Secretariat during the build-up to and 
subsequent execution of Operation TELIC in 2003. In 2006, he 
volunteered for an operational tour, serving as political advisor to a 
British battlegroup in Maysaan Province, Iraq--while his brother was a 
troop leader with the British Army in Basra. On his return, he took on 
responsibility for the strategic management of the United Kingdom's 
bilateral defence relations with the United States, Canada, and Western 
Europe.
  From 2007 to 2009, he worked as Private Secretary to three Defence 
Secretaries, acting as their closest adviser on issues relating to 
operations in Iraq, the 6-billion defence equipment 
programme, science and technology, counterterrorism and counterpiracy.
  In 2009, he was appointed the head of Afghanistan and Pakistan 
policy, responsible for advice to the National Security Council on the 
policy, financial, legal, parliamentary, and presentational aspects of 
the UK military contribution to operations in Afghanistan and on the 
long-term defence role and interests in Pakistan.
  Edward has been a key voice engaging on behalf of Her Majesty's 
Government, particularly with Congress. He has been a strong proponent 
of increasing the breadth and depth of the bilateral relationship since 
his arrival at the embassy and has gained many friends and allies in a 
bipartisan basis throughout Capitol Hill. He has travelled far and wide 
throughout the heartland of the United States--and has many excellent 
memories of American hospitality to show for it. His presence and 
strong support of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance will be sorely missed, 
but I know he will always be a stalwart advocate for our alliance.
  I know I speak for a chorus of voices in the Senate in wishing him, 
his wife Caroline, and their children, Henry, Tessa, and Mimi well as 
they transition into their next diplomatic posting.

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