Andrew B Brown is a hostage/ crisis negotiator, government and military advisor and humanitarian
I was fortunate to have a good childhood within a loving family and always enjoyed my time in Scouting: camping, adventures, learning new skills and importantly helping others.
We’d holidayed in the Highlands of Scotland as a family enjoying the freedom of the glens, climbing mountains, fishing in hill lochs for trout and just loved the space, tranquillity of nature and dodging the swarms of midges. To please my parents, I applied for the Civil Service and got offered a job in the Scottish Government in Edinburgh, but to their annoyance I declined it and applied for policing in Northern Constabulary, covering the Highlands and Islands - back to where I knew I loved the environment.
My first posting to Caithness was a good place to start my career, lots of experiences packed into my formative years as a police officer, including retrieving an elephant who had decided to walk away from the circus! It wasn’t long before I got posted to the Outer Hebrides where I truly learned the power of policing with the consent of the community, which requires negotiation, leadership, relationship building and an understanding of faith. Respecting that faith, their beliefs and how they live their life was for me an eye opener as was the power of community.
As I moved across the Highlands and Islands, I embraced all the work challenges gaining lots of different skills, but this was often at the expense of my personal life and subsequent failed marriages. Going through separation and divorce is shitty, but as my lawyer said, regard it as a bad chapter in your life. The trick is to have more good chapters than bad. Sound advice, I thought at the time. I was also blessed with children, but also lost children in childbirth, a pain that I can’t describe, but one that shaped me who I am.
Training to become a hostage/crisis negotiator was, for me, my start on my path. Being described as a ‘gentle giant who is very tactically aware’ it wasn’t long before I was thrown into high level counter terrorism exercises in addition to attending many incidents where, mainly men, were attempting to take their own lives. Sometimes that quiet ‘Hello, I’m Andy, I’m here to help you’ was enough to start dialogue that would divert them from their course of action, so we could get them the right help. Like many negotiators, it was voluntary and on top of the day job, but one that always left me fulfilled helping others.
So, after 25 years of operational policing, I was keen to give back and to pass on the lessons that I had learned, so went to teach at the Scottish Police College. This was transformational for me. Free from the political infighting that comes with any organisation, I threw myself into studies and imparting my wisdom to others. An elective surgical operation that almost took my life, threw me onto the ground, suddenly feeling helpless after a career that almost makes you feel invincible. Before I could run in the hills for miles, but now I could barely walk any distance. Like many I questioned why this happened to me, and like many men I buried my frustrations and soldiered on alone.
Becoming a Fulbright Scholar, I left Scotland and went to live in Hells Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City to teach at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and work with NYPD, FBI, USMS Fugitive Task Force and many other law enforcement agencies across the US, imparting my knowledge and experience in hostage/crisis negotiations. I felt welcomed into the law enforcement brotherhood.
As a hostage/crisis negotiator, I had found my groove, my expertise was recognised by many. I was helping people in abject crisis come back from the precipice, but again I felt there was something missing. Helping others in crisis is exhausting and after three decades of policing I started to plan my transition to a life beyond. I was fortunate with my experience to teach leadership and negotiation skills all over the world, so I felt the transition would be a smooth one. But then as I neared the end of my policing career, I got hit with illness and chronic fatigue; I felt absolutely frustrated, useless and almost hopeless.
Lecturing on kidnap to a prestigious audience in London, I met an Irishman, a Chief Security Officer of a faith-based INGO, who asked me if I could train negotiators. I confirmed I could, and we exchanged business cards. I thought little of it, but as always I followed up and kept in touch. Who knew that two years later he would call me to assist in the response to a Jesuit Priest being kidnapped in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
So, over an eight-month period, I trained a team in Herat, Afghanistan, coordinating every interaction to successfully negotiate the Priest’s release from captivity without payment of ransom. I was in church worshipping when the Priest was released from his captivity and at a subsequent debrief in Rome over prayer, I was told “Andy, you came from nowhere to help, and you have guided us from the darkness into the light.” This was my bolt from the blue and first sign to confirm what my purpose is … to continue to help others.
Exhausted and still suffering from chronic fatigue, a good friend in the Scottish Institute of Business Leaders subtly pointed me towards the power of meditation. As I embraced the lessons, I was asked by the teacher why I had chosen to learn meditation at this point in my life. Reflecting, I answered that I wanted to live my life differently, and this, with my faith gave me strength to recover.
Meeting my wife was - as my grandmother said - meant to be. A beautiful, smart Greek Cypriot from London. We both felt so natural together, so before long we got married at a Greek Orthodox wedding in a Scottish Castle. The arrival of our daughter late in life felt like a miracle. After converting from Church of Scotland to my now Orthodox faith, I went off to Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain, to spend a week with the Orthodox Monks to immerse myself in my faith. After my policing career it felt the right time. There, I would pray daily several times and often just listen to that divine guidance absorbing the wisdom and serenity of the monks.
Dipping my toe in the security world with others in a partnership I found wasn’t for me and led me to reflect through prayer on my purpose. It was to help others in often abject crisis find their way to a more peaceful and meaningful purpose in their lives. So, I pieced together my website (https://www.the-right-path.com) to help others interested what I did in the world of crises.
Working with the Jesuits and the Holy See across the world has allowed me to help save life and carefully navigate many crises from natural disasters to the many armed conflicts across the world. Blessed with that ‘deep well of wisdom’ as I was told by an African Priest, I helped teams navigate many of the complexities of delivering that mission without faltering. Guiding Hazara families to safety after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in August 2021 was probably off the charts with stress, but one where I was able to get them to safety and a new life, free from persecution.
A focus on the mission to accompany, advocate and serve those who need us most has been at times exhausting but also rewarding, not in monetary terms but in numbers of souls saved. The motto of the Jesuits is ‘Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam’ in Latin, which means ‘For the Greater Glory of God’.
When I reflect on my life, there are many things that I have done wrong, many bad experiences that I have suffered, some of my own doing, but what has always seen me through is my strength of faith and my purpose of helping others. I was once described as a gentle giant who is very tactically aware, who brings a calmness of thought and an innate ability to empathically listen to others in helping them find their purpose and right path in life.
We all hold the answers to our problems from within ourselves and just sometimes we need help to find the right solution.
