Achim Steiner has lived one of the most remarkable international lives of his generation. The son of a German farmer who emigrated to Brazil, he was born in Rio Grande do Sul in 1961, a dual citizenship that would come to embody a career defined by crossing borders. He began not in the grand halls of the United Nations but in the field, working on rural development in Germany before moving to the International Union for Conservation of Nature across Southern Africa and Washington. From there his career traced the fault lines of the planet's ecological crisis: advising on the contested waters of the Mekong, leading the World Commission on Dams, then returning to the IUCN as Director-General just as climate change became the defining challenge of the age. In 2006, nominated by Kofi Annan, the General Assembly unanimously elected him Executive Director of UNEP, a mandate renewed and extended as he steered global environmental policy through Cancún, Doha, and Paris. He crowned that effort at the helm of the UN Development Programme, before returning to Oxford as Senior Fellow of the Oxford Martin School.

Juliet Campbell CMG has lived one of the most remarkable diplomatic lives of her generation. She joined the Diplomatic Service in 1957, among the very first women to do so, and from that pioneering start went on to a career that traced the great arcs of post-war history. By 1967 she was in the Foreign Office News Department, and she later returned to King Charles Street to serve in the European Integration Department just as Harold Wilson embarked on his "fundamental renegotiation of the terms of entry" to the European Communities—a defining moment in Britain's long and complicated romance with Europe. From there her postings read like a roll-call of the century's most consequential capitals: Paris, Beijing, and Jakarta. She crowned her diplomatic career as Her Majesty's Ambassador to Luxembourg, where she hosted Margaret Thatcher and a stream of other VIPs, before turning her formidable energies to academia as Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge.

Reflections from former US Ambassador Jonathan Cohen and former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bennett Freeman

Ambassador Jonathan R. Cohen is a strategic advisor and international consultant who served for over 35 years as a U.S. diplomat, including as Ambassador to Egypt and the United Nations, and in senior roles such as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Deputy Chief of Mission in Baghdad and Nicosia, and Acting Deputy Chief of Mission in Paris. His extensive career also included key political and advisory positions across Europe and the Middle East, with assignments in Paris, Rome, Ankara, Irbil, Baghdad, Stockholm, Vienna, Jerusalem, and Bangkok, as well as work with the OSCE, NATO, and U.S. State Department leadership. He received numerous honors, including a Presidential Rank Award and multiple State Department awards for excellence. Born in Palo Alto, California in 1964 and raised there and in Laguna Beach, he earned an AB in Politics with a Certificate in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University in 1985 and attended Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Foreign Service program in 1986.

Bennett Freeman is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and an Associate Fellow in the Global Economy and Finance Program at Chatham House. Over the last 25 years of a four-decade career, Freeman has worked at the intersection of governments, international institutions, responsible investors, and civil society organizations to establish global standards and multi-stakeholder initiatives for corporate responsibility and accountability. Earlier in his career, he was Senior Vice President and served as a Clinton presidential appointee at the US Department of State, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. He earned an MA in Modern History from Oxford as a Churchill Scholar at Balliol College and an AB in History from the University of California at Berkeley.

In conversation with Shashank Joshi

In conversation with Shashank Joshi

Fireside Chat with Duncan Hill

Discussing African Development

Former Ambassador Jonathan R. Cohen

A discussion on the interaction between diplomacy and UK law.

Ten values across two decades in public and private sections. Lessons for a successful International Relations Career. With the Oxford International Relations Society, the Oxford Arab Society, and the Oxford Institute.

A fireside chat with Lord William Hague.

A discussion with Jules Chappell OBE, Britain’s Youngest Ambassador.

Professor Fabre is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College. She is a world-class contemporary political philosopher, whose work has focused on politics, the ethics of war, bioethics, and theories of justice. She is the author of several works, including ‘Economic Statecraft: Human Rights, Sanctions, and Conditionality.’

This discussion developed a case study of Central Asia and the Caucasus to examine how various actors might adapt to and exploit new technologies. Our incredible panellists included Dr. Anatoly Motken (Founder & President of StrategEast, a think tank working to develop Eurasia’s digital infrastructure), Fletcher Pasque (a business development executive at SBC) and Dr. Corneliu Bjola (a world-leading academic of digital diplomacy at Oxford’s Department of International Development).

Dr. Copsey has extensive diplomatic experience as the former Head of Future of Europe Department in the UK Foreign Office and will be starting his diplomatic posting as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Bulgaria this August 2024. Dr. Copsey has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Helsinki, MGIMO in Moscow and Sciences-Po (Lille and Rennes). Dr. Copsey holds a BA (Hons) in Modern History from the University of Oxford, a Masters from the College of Europe and a DPhil from the University of Sussex.

In collaboration with Oxford Speaks.

Speakers:

Andrew Francis: the FCDO’s Head of Climate Diplomacy- a role that includes overseeing all climate diplomatic strategy, running HMG’s global climate attaché network, and leading FCDO planning for the last COP Summits. Immediately prior to this, Andrew was the FCDO’s Head of Communications for Europe & Central Asia, overseeing the department’s communications across the region. This included leading the department’s global Brexit communications. After graduating from the London School of Economics with a masters in the History of International Relations, he began his career in communications for the UN Refugee Agency during the Arab Spring. He joined the UK Government in 2012, firstly as a Policy Advisor developing the Government’s new digital strategy, then moving to the Prime Minister’s Office & Cabinet Office as a Senior Media Advisor. In this role he planned communications for various major events, including multiple Queen’s Speeches and the birth of the royal baby. Andrew was also Official Spokesperson for the official inquiry into the Iraq War, successfully overseeing global media for publication of the 2.5 million word report. He has advised a number of governments around the world on their strategic communications planning and implementation.

Professor Benito Müller: Managing Director of Oxford Climate Policy (a not-for-profit company aimed at capacity building for developing country climate change negotiators), and Director of the European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi), an international initiative for sustained capacity building in support of international climate change negotiations. He has been serving as Adviser to the LDC Group Chair (2011-12) and the Africa Group Chair (2012-13). He participated in the deliberation of the Transitional Committee (TC) for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as Adviser to the LDC TC members, who he has also been advising on the GCF Board and the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance. Professor Müller received his doctorate (D. Phil.) in Philosophy from the University of Oxford and was formerly a Research Fellow at Wolfson College and a Lecturer in Logic at the Queen’s College, Oxford. He has a Diploma in Mathematics from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland.

Kaya Axelsson: research fellow and Head of Policy and Partnership at Oxford Net Zero where she leads a team to translate research into resources, policy, and standards for defining and achievements net zero. After years working as a community organiser, Kaya moved to Oxford to work on connecting climate action communities internationally. She has earned distinction for research on politically unlikely renewable energy coalitions. Her current research and engagement focus is on the emerging net zero governance and regulatory landscape. Kaya has served as a strategic advisor to the UN-backed Race to Zero campaign and as a technical author on the International Standard Organisation’s Net Zero Guidelines. With 15 years of experience in social and environmental sustainability, she convenes and works regularly with organisations and policy leaders on their net zero strategies.

A panel of specialists from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) discussed their work as an advisory capacity with governments and NGOs worldwide!

The TBI was founded in 2016 with the intention of restoring the Blairite middle way in global politics, fighting populism and extremism, and focusing on peace initiatives and state-building in areas of endemic violence, particularly in the Middle East.

Panelists:

Stephanie Jackson, a Senior Manager, Strategy & Operations within the TBI Government Advisory practice, supporting a global portfolio of 200+ projects across 40+ countries. Stephanie previously worked for McKinsey & Company, focused on digital transformation and enterprise agility in the public sector, and was seconded to McKinsey’s “Generation” charity as Director of Programmes. Before that, she was based in Beijing, China, for 4 years working for the British Council on UK-China education programmes; and Managua, Nicaragua, managing social projects for a cultural centre.

Ruby Osman, a Policy Advisor at TBI where she leads the institute’s China work. Ruby has appeared on the BBC and written for TIME, Newsweek and the South China Morning Post on China’s foreign and domestic policy, and previously co-founded the Oxford Silk Road Society think-tank.

Matt Andersen, an Analyst at the TBI working in the institute’s Research & Data unit. Alongside this, he is completing a DPhil in History at Brasenose College, where he is writing a thesis on the reinvention of liberalism in Britain and America during the Cold War. He currently serves as the editor of the Oxford Centre for Intellectual History and his work sits at the intersection of intellectual history and public policy.

Olivia Louisy, a Recruitment Manager at TBI where she recruits experienced hires globally across Policy and Politics, Partnerships and Advisory. In addition, supporting the Senior Recruitment and Outreach Manager with Early Careers (Associate Internship programmes) and outreach to universities.

The Right Honourable Baroness Catherine Ashton served as the European Union's first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy from 2009 to 2014. She earned wide praise as a negotiator, leading the P5+1 talks on Iran’s nuclear program and galvanizing agreement between Serbia and Kosovo. Previously, Baroness Ashton served as the first woman Commissioner for Trade in the European Commission and the first woman British European Commissioner. A Life Peer in the British House of Lords, she is a former nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, among other accolades. She served as a Distinguished Fellow at the Wilson Center in 2017.