Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG LVO

Rt Hon Field Marshal The Lord Inge, KG, GCB, DL, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG LVO, Michael Ancram MP

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles started work as the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan in February 2009. He is based at the Foreign Office, but travels extensively. He served as British Ambassador to Afghanistan from May 2007 until 21 February 2009. He was British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2003 to 2007. Before that he spent 20 months as British Ambassador to Israel (the first Arabic-speaker to have been appointed there), and nearly two and a half years as Principal Private Secretary to the then British Foreign Secretary, the late Robin Cook. Sherard was born in London in 1955. He joined the Diplomatic Service immediately after studying Greek, Latin, philosophy and ancient history at Oxford. He was selected for hard language training, and spent nearly two years learning Arabic before his first posting, to the British Embassy in Cairo. Sherard’s later overseas postings included political jobs in the British Embassies in Washington and Paris. In between he worked in London as a Foreign Office speech-writer, as Private Secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary, and on European security after the end of the Cold War. He was Head of the Foreign Office Hong Kong Department for three years leading up to the handover of the Territory in 1997. Sherard speaks French, Arabic, and some Hebrew. He acquired basic Pashto for his posting to Kabul.

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the Foreign Secretary's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was Global Strategy Forum's second guest lecturer in January. Speaking on 'Britain in Afghanistan' under the Chatham House Rule, he gave a compelling prediction of how success could be achieved in Afghanistan and what that success might look like.

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