Dennis Blease

Dr Blease has been a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire since 2018 and is part of the Lieutenancy team focused on the Vale of White Horse. The Lieutenancy’s link to Wantage, he is a member of the Lieutenancy’s Honours and Awards Committee and holds the Lieutenancy’s military brief.

Dennis served in the British Army for 36 years and retired as a Brigadier. He spent his last ten years in uniform working mainly with NATO, but also with the EU and the UN. As Commander of NATO’s mission in the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia), he assisted the country in reforming its security sector and governance arrangements (2004-2005). This role in reform was then expanded by NATO to cover the whole of the Western Balkans (2006-2008). It included being an Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo, the former Finnish President and Nobel Peace Laureate, Martti Ahtisaari.

He retired from the British Army in 2008 and initially worked for Cranfield University, providing support to the UK’s Stabilisation Unit in London. Since 2012 he has been an independent consultant, lecturing and advising on security and justice reform around the world including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and most of the countries of the Western Balkans. His consultancy work contributed to his doctoral studies at Cranfield University, Shrivenham, where he gained his PhD in 2018. He retired from his consultancy business in 2020.

Dennis is a member of the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust (OHCT) and a Fellow of St Birinus. Formerly, he was a trustee of the Longcot Village Trust, the Soldiers of Oxford Museum, and Lay Deputy Chair of the Longcot with Fernham Parochial Church Council.

Dennis is married to Kathy and they live in Letcombe Regis.