Rory Stewart has dedicated his life to acting in times of political crisis and developing fragile and conflict-afflicted states. As a new era dawns for global geopolitics, he joins us with his insights.

Born in Hong Kong and raised in Malaysia, commissioned in the Black Watch when only a teenager, Rory Stewart’s career bears little resemblance to the typical 21st century career politician or academic.

After serving as a diplomat in Indonesia, the Balkans and Iraq, a foundation director in Afghanistan, and as Secretary of State for International Development, he is now a scholar at Yale, where he brings together academic insights with decades of hard-won experience from the front lines of war and top-table international politics.

He returns to How To Academy to reflect on the world in our time and share his insights into the new status quo. The withdrawal from Afghanistan, invasion of Ukraine, and ongoing effects of the pandemic have brought down the curtain on the post-Cold War era with a swiftness that none of us could have predicted. What should we expect from the new world that is emerging in its place? Find out from one of the most respected voices in politics and global governance today.

Rory Stewart, currently a Senior Fellow at the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, was the UK Secretary of State for International development in 2019. Prior to that, Stewart served in a variety of roles including as Minister of the Environment, as Minister of State responsible for development policy in the Middle East and Asia and UK policy in Africa, as Minister of State for Justice, and as Chair of the House of Commons Defense Select Committee. Earlier in his career he served briefly as an infantry officer and then as a diplomat for the UK government in Indonesia, the Balkans and Iraq. He founded and ran the Turquoise Mountain foundation in Afghanistan and was the Director of the Carr Centre and the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Stewart has also written four books: The Places in Between, Occupational Hazards or The Prince of the Marshes, Can Intervention Work?, and The Marches.