Jonathan Powell

Jonathan is an expert on conflict resolution and negotiation strategy. As a former British diplomat, he has held senior negotiating roles in some of the most significant international disputes of the past four decades. In 2011, he founded Inter Mediate, a charity focussed on conflict resolution around the world.

In his role as a diplomat, Jonathan worked on negotiations with the Chinese on the return of Hong Kong in the early 1980s, the European arms control talks and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe human rights talks with the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, and the Two plus Four talks on German Unification.

From 2006-2011, he led negotiations between the Spanish government and ETA, the Basque terrorist group, which ended the 50-year armed conflict. As director of Inter Mediate, he has advised president Santos in Colombia on the negotiations with the FARC since 2011, concluding with a peace agreement ending 50 years of conflict.

From 1995-2007, Jonathan was Tony Blair's chief of staff, and served as the chief British negotiator on Northern Ireland, helping to bring conflict in Ireland to a peaceful resolution. Prior to this, as the political officer at the British Embassy in Washington, he joined Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign of 1991, playing a key role in building a close relationship between the US president and the new British prime minister.

Jonathan was appointed Prime Minister David Cameron's special envoy for Libya from 2014-2016.

He is a member of the board of Save the Children International and the author of three books: Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland; The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World; and Talking to Terrorists: How to End Armed Conflict.