Biography

Robert Francis Cooper is a British diplomat and adviser, who served as a Special Advisor at the European Commission for Myanmar between 2013 and 2014. He was also a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

As a diplomat, he has worked at various British embassies abroad, notably in Tokyo and Bonn. At the Foreign Office he was Head of the Policy Planning Staff from 1989 to 1993. He was also deputed to the Bank of England and spent time in the Cabinet Office as Assistant Secretary for Defence and Overseas Affairs. He was the UK's Special Representative in Afghanistan until mid-2002.

In 2002, Cooper began to work for the European Union (EU). He worked for two High Representatives, Javier Solana and Cathy Ashton on a range of EU foreign and security issues including Iran, the Balkans and Myanmar.

Cooper is an acclaimed writer on international relations and well-known public intellectual. He is the author of influential studies on the modern world, e.g. ‘The Post-Modern State and the World Order’. His latest book, “The Ambassadors, Thinking about Diplomacy from Machiavelli to Modern Times” puts the case that individuals - as well great historic forces - play a role in world history.