Chat with Founder of Independent Diplomat CARNE ROSS OA
Carne Ross (75–84) is founder and director of Independent Diplomat www.independentdiplomat.org, a non-profit diplomatic advisory group. With five offices in international diplomatic centres, it employs former diplomats and other experts in international relations to advise democratic governments and political groups in all regions on diplomatic problems. Ben Christy (06–13), who has just finished a Masters in International Relations Theory at the London School of Economics, and who is looking to work in foreign and security policy, interviewed him last year.
From your TED talk it sounds as though your career in the diplomatic service was incredibly interesting. What inspired you to give it up and start Independent Diplomat? I resigned from the Foreign Office after giving secret evidence to the Butler Inquiry into the Iraq War. I had worked on Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction for several years at the UK Mission to the United Nations. I was living in Kosovo when I resigned. My wife had the idea that I should advise the Kosovo government because they weren’t allowed any diplomatic representation. They were the subject of diplomatic processes but were not allowed to
participate in them. That was the start of what became the larger organisation, now with several offices in diplomatic centres, called Independent Diplomat.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in getting your vision up and running? I imagine it was very difficult to find
funding without becoming affiliated to any institution or government. I thought the biggest challenge
would be the resistance of the conventional diplomatic system. But in fact, I found
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