“Being a woman in NATO is not anything like as challenging as some people think. They need us. They need to have our perspective on things. [At NATO] you are as good as your background and the profile you generate… and that has nothing to do with gender.”

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JULIETTE BIRD is the head of NATO’s Counter-Terrorism section, within the Emerging Security Challenges Division. In the course of a 20 year career in the UK foreign service, Dr. Bird specializes in global threats including proliferation, financial crime and, most extensively, terrorism. She served in the UK’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and was then seconded to NATO to set up an equivalent body for the Alliance.

Themes: adventure, counter-terrorism, diplomacy

Takeaways: “What makes you buzz, is never the same as what makes someone else buzz, so you don’t have to listen to advice, you have to decide whether it chimes with what you feel.”

Learn more about NATO’s counterterrorism efforts here.