Biography
Mark Goodwin-Hudson is a former Blues Royals officer. He resigned from the British Army as a Lt Col, after 26 years service, during which he commanded soldiers on operations in the Balkans in the mid 90s; for the invasion of Kosovo in 1999; in Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2008, 2014 and 2016. He started his career as a reconnaissance officer before passing selection for the Parachute Brigade. Later he worked in intelligence and surveillance, and in 2013 was tasked with creating the 1st UK Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade, an organisation of over 6000 soldiers.
During his last tour in Afghanistan he was the NATO lead for civilian casualty investigations and mitigation. His team conducted over 50 investigations into allegations of civilian harm attributed to Coalition and Afghanistan Defence Forces. For the first time allegations against Special Forces were investigated and in one instance the US senior commander in Helmand Province had his right to authorise airstrikes removed.
Having resigned his commission on return from Afghanistan he began consulting for CIVIC The Centre for Civilians in Conflict. This led to advocacy roles with the UK and Dutch MODs, working in concert with AOAV, PAX 4 PEACE, Every Casualty Counts and AIRWARS. Concurrently he worked at the Defence Scientific Institute as the lead analyst for a study on contemporary Russian Forces. More recently he has worked as the military adviser to the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry, Hala Systems in Ukraine, and is currently on the Justice Rapid Response roster.