Rory Stewart OBE is the member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border in the UK. In January 2018, he was appointed minister of state at the Ministry of Justice.
His previous career was in foreign affairs, particularly focused on military intervention and international development. After a very brief period as an infantry officer he joined the UK Diplomatic Service, serving overseas in Jakarta, as British representative to Montenegro in the wake of the Kosovo crisis, and as the coalition deputy-governor of two provinces in the Marsh Arab region of Southern Iraq following the Iraq intervention of 2003. On leave from the Foreign Service he walked for 21 months crossing Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal, staying in 500 village houses on the journey.
In 2008 he was appointed as the Ryan Family Professor of the Practice of Human Rights and Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He also founded Turquoise Mountain Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the regeneration of the historic commercial center of Kabul, Afghanistan.
His books include The Marches, The Places in Between, and The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq.
Featured Work
MAY 26, 2009 • Podcast
The Afghan Challenge
Rebuilding Afghanistan will be a long process, says Stewart, and so our presence there needs to be much lighter. It's inconceivable that for the next 30...