You have recently arrived at Chatham House as director of its new Centre for Global Governance and Security – what is it?
I’m thrilled to be at Chatham House and the new Centre is a fantastic initiative, bringing together four existing Chatham House research programmes: International Security, International Law, Global Health and Digital Society. It will address the big questions around how a fragmenting world order creates huge challenges for global cooperative action.
The world is going to become even tougher as we move into a more nationalistic, transactional phase. That’s not solely due to the actions of the United States, it reflects the realities of great power competition. If the major powers are retreating to their boltholes, preparing for perpetual competition and failing to ask questions around global governance and cooperation, that is really damaging to future security. The new centre will address these challenges head on in its research and convening.
You’ve worked in academia, civil service and think tanks. How will what you learned from each of these help you in your new role?
Academia gives you the indulgence to study things without necessarily having to consider policy implementation. Having spent several years working for the British government, I know it’s easier to find ways to influence if you understand how the system works: What is policy? How do you influence policymakers? How do civil servants engage with politicians? And international actors are going to constrain what you can do because it’s a very competitive world. So how do you make your voice heard?
A decade ago, you joined a ceasefire monitoring mission in Ukraine. What did you learn?
I lived in Donbas for a year around the time of the first Russian invasion in 2014-15. I was seconded by the Foreign Office to what was the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] ceasefire monitor mission, feeding information we found on the ground to the negotiators of the Minsk agreements. What’s striking is that some of the areas that have been fought over now are not far from the old front line.
That was one of the most shaping experiences of my life, working in a war zone where civilians are suffering, while your work contributes to geopolitically intractable negotiations that are happening concurrently with the fighting. Having a first-hand view of what that looks and feels like is important.
Your two most recent books are ‘The Great Imperial Hangover’ and ‘Westlessness’. Would you say you are concerned with the lingering influence of outmoded forms of global governance?
I wanted to convey in those books the themes that resonated with me while living outside the West – in my case in Singapore for several years. I noticed how quickly the rest of the world is changing. If you live in the West and your principal cultural and media reference points are European and American, there is no problem with that. The question is whether the ways in which other parts of the world are thinking are coming through to you.
What those books are asking for is a bit of self-awareness. The first theme I wanted to explore was how the lack of unanimity over the lessons of history affects geopolitics. The second is about other parts of the world mobilizing quite powerful new networks that don’t include or address western countries. This is not some great conspiracy. We really are in a transition era, after a couple of centuries of dominance by Europe and North America.