an alternative option to the government's plan for limited direct military involvement. The plans were rejected by the National Security Council as too ambitious. Consequently, his alternative advice was "to let Assad win and quickly and to stop encouraging and supplying opposition groups with insufficient support to ensure their success" to reduce the humanitarian consequences, which was not accepted. Ultimately on 29 August 2013, parliament refused to support the government's plan to participate in military strikes against the Syrian government. Richards was succeeded as Chief of the Defence Staff by General Sir Nicholas Houghton on 18 July 2013. Later life Richards worked as a consultant for the government of the United Arab Emirates and has advised American arms company DynCorp. From October 2013, Richards has worked as a Senior Adviser to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Richards is a patron of the Armed Forces Muslim Association. On 26 June 2014, Richards said that Britain's Armed Forces will be like a "banana republic" if the Ministry of Defence kept cutting costs, and criticised the "bean counters" who cut perks for his successors. He is believed to have said Defence Secretary Philip Hammond "would never be a good soldier". Richards was concerned about a controversial plan to replace regular troops with reservists. On pay to soldiers, he said: On 7 October 2014, Richards criticised the contemporary Western strategy employed to defeat ISIS. He said that air strikes are: Richards wrote an autobiography, Taking Command, which was published by Headline in October 2014. In a November 2016 interview with the parliamentary magazine The House, Richards said of Western involvement in the Syrian Civil War: In June 2022, Richards made similar criticisms of the west's incrementally developed approach to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He suggested the long-term strategy should be to persuade Russia not to align with China. Honours Richards attended the US Brigade Commanders, Combined Joint Force Land Component Commanders, and Joint Task Force Commanders (Pinnacle) Courses. His operational awards include a Mention in Despatches for services in Northern Ireland. Richards was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services in East Timor, and made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for services in Sierra Leone (Operation Barras). Richards was appointed and knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the July 2007 operational and gallantry awards list