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Rory Stewart Biography & Facts

Roderick James Nugent Stewart (born 3 January 1973), known as Rory Stewart, is a British academic, and broadcaster, and former diplomat and politician. He is the Brady-Johnson Professor of the Practice of Grand Strategy at Yale University's Jackson School of Global Affairs. He hosts The Rest Is Politics podcast with Alastair Campbell. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Penrith and The Border from 2010 to 2019, and between 2015 and 2019 he served as a minister in four departments of the British Government. He then became a Cabinet minister as Secretary of State for International Development from May to July 2019. Born in Hong Kong, Stewart was educated at the Dragon School and Eton College. After studying at Balliol College, Oxford, Stewart worked for Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service as a diplomat in Indonesia and as British Representative to Montenegro. He left the diplomatic service to undertake a two-year walk across Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal. He later wrote a best-selling book, The Places in Between, about his experiences. He subsequently served as Deputy Governor in Maysan and Dhi Qar for the Coalition Provisional Authority following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and wrote a second book covering this period, Occupational Hazards or The Prince of the Marshes. In 2005, he moved to Kabul to establish and run the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. He was the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights and the director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University from 2008 to 2010. In 2010, Stewart was elected to the House of Commons and in 2014 was elected chair of the Defence Select Committee. He served under David Cameron as Minister for the Environment from 2015 to 2016. He was a minister throughout Theresa May’s government: as Minister of State for International Development, Minister of State for Africa and Minister of State for Prisons. He ultimately joined the Cabinet and National Security Council as Secretary of State for International Development. After May resigned, Stewart stood as a candidate to be Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the 2019 leadership contest. His campaign was defined by his unorthodox use of social media and opposition to a no-deal Brexit. He stated at the beginning of his campaign that he would not serve under Boris Johnson. When Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019, Stewart resigned from the cabinet. On 3 September 2019, Stewart had the Conservative Whip removed after voting to back a motion paving the way for a law seeking to delay the UK's exit date from the European Union. On 3 October 2019, Stewart announced he had resigned from the Conservative Party and that he would stand down as an MP at the next general election. He initially announced that he would stand as an independent candidate in the 2021 London mayoral election but withdrew on 6 May 2020 on the grounds of the election being postponed on account of COVID-19. His career in politics is described in his bestselling memoir Politics On The Edge (published in the US as How Not To Be a Politician). Stewart was the President of GiveDirectly from 2022 to 2023, and was a visiting fellow at Yale Jackson from 2020 to 2022, teaching politics and international relations. In March 2022, Stewart and Alastair Campbell launched The Rest Is Politics, which has topped politics podcast ratings in the UK most weeks. Early life and education Stewart was born in Hong Kong, then under British rule, the son of Brian Stewart and his wife, Sally Elizabeth Acland Nugent (née Rose). His family is from Broich House (built in 1770), near Crieff in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Stewart's father, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, was a colonial official and diplomat who, in the 1970s, was reportedly a candidate to become the Chief of the UK's Secret Intelligence Service or MI6. Stewart's maternal grandfather was Jewish. His younger sister has Down syndrome. Stewart spent his early years in South Kensington, London before his family moved to Malaysia and then back to Hong Kong. He returned to Britain for boarding school from Malaysia at the age of 8, being educated at the Dragon School, in Oxford, and Eton College. He was taught martial arts and fencing by his father in Hyde Park. As a teenager, he was a member of the Labour Party. During his gap year in 1991, he served a short service limited commission in the Black Watch for five months as second lieutenant on probation. He studied medieval history under Maurice Keen and then philosophy, politics and economics under Jonathan Barnes at Balliol College, Oxford. While a student at Oxford, Stewart was a private tutor to Prince William and Prince Harry during the summer. He attended a single meeting of the Bullingdon Club before resigning after witnessing the behaviour of other members. Diplomatic career Indonesia and Montenegro After graduating, Stewart joined the Foreign Office. In Indonesia, he served as the Political & Economic Second Secretary in the British embassy in Jakarta from 1997 to 1999, during the Asian Financial Crisis and the fall of Suharto, working on issues related to East Timor independence. He was appointed at the age of 26 as the British Representative to Montenegro in the wake of the Kosovo campaign. Some have suggested that Stewart was an employee of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) during his time as a British Representative to Montenegro – allegedly being recruited to MI6 shortly after he graduated from Oxford University. Stewart has said that his career progression and his father's work for MI6 might "give the appearance" that he worked for MI6, but says he did not work for MI6 while a diplomat. Stewart has acknowledged that due to the Official Secrets Act, even if he had worked for MI6, he would not be able to admit it. Iraq After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Stewart was appointed as the Coalition Provisional Authority Deputy Governorate Co-ordinator in Maysan and Deputy Governorate Co-ordinator/Senior Advisor in Dhi Qar in 2003, both of which are provinces in southern Iraq. He was posted initially to the KOSB Battlegroup then to the Light Infantry. His responsibilities included holding elections, resolving tribal disputes, and implementing development projects. He faced growing unrest and an incipient civil war from his base in a Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC) compound in Al Amarah, and in May 2004 was in command of his compound in Nasiriyah when it was besieged by Sadrist Movement militia. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services during this period. While Stewart initially supported the Iraq War, the international coalition's inability to achieve a more humane, prosperous state led him in retrospect to believe the invasion had been a mistake. Books and media Travel and travel writing In 2000, Stewart took leave from the Foreign Office to walk across Asia. This journey on foot invol.... Discover the Rory Stewart popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Rory Stewart books.