Rory Stewart

Rory Stewart is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border.

"Rory was appointed to a professorial chair at Harvard University as the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights on 1st January 2009 and became Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School."

He joined "the Carr Center after working for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq. As Deputy Governorate Coordinator (Amara/Maysan) and Senior Adviser and Deputy Governorate Coordinator (Nasiriyah/Dhi Qar), Stewart established the governance structures of Maysan province; resolved tribal disputes to restore security and consolidate the authority of the Iraqi government and the police; set up NGOs and civil society organizations;  ran municipal elections;  inaugurated a new Provincial Council in Dhi Qar and saw the province through to the transfer of sovereignty on 28 June 2004 He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the British Government for services in Iraq.  He Between 2000 and 2002, he walked from Turkey to Bangladesh, covering 6,000 miles on foot, alone, on his journey across Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal. This year he has published The Places in Between (Picador/Macmillan June 2004), a book about contemporary Afghanistan, based on his experiences in 2001-2002 and a brief period spent working for Ashraf Ghani, (Special Adviser to SRSG for Afghanistan, Lakdar Brahimi), who was drafting the framework for the new Afghan administration. Before joining the CPA, Stewart held various positions in the UK Foreign Office including: UK Representative, Montenegro; Second Secretary (Political/Economic), British Embassy, Jakarta; and Desk Officer (Japan and Korea), London. He also served in the British Army and received his B.A., M.A., Modern History and Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford University. He has written for the New York Times Magazine, Granta and the London Review of Books.“

In August 2009 the Financial Times reported that: "Since arriving at Harvard in June last year, he has been consultant to several members of Barack Obama’s administration, including Hillary Clinton, and is a member of Richard Holbrooke’s special committee for Afghanistan and Pakistan policy. ... Born in Hong Kong in 1973 to Brian Stewart, a diplomat, and Sally, an academic, he was raised in Malaysia... After Eton, he spent a year as an infantry officer in the Black Watch before going to Balliol, Oxford, where he read modern history, politics, philosophy and economics."

Affiliations

 * Founder, Turquoise Mountain Foundation
 * Carr Center, Former Fellows 2004/05
 * Advisory Board, Brenthurst Foundation

Related Sourcewatch

 * In 2009 Craig Murray accused Rory of previously working for MI6