Jonathan Powell
Jonathan Powell
Jonathan Nicholas Powellis a British diplomat who served as the first Downing Street Chief of Staff, under British Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1995 to 2007. He was the only senior adviser to last the whole period of Blair’s leadership. During this period Powell was also the chief British negotiator on Northern Ireland...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionDiplomat
Date of Birth14 August 1956
keener themselves wars
Politicians do not enter into wars lightly. It is usually the military themselves who are keener to become involved.
civil expel massive modern necessary prevent seen stop threat war wars
I do not think that war is always wrong: sometimes it is necessary to stop a dictator, prevent massive human-rights abuses, or expel an invader. But I have also seen that in the modern world, civil wars are the greatest threat to humanitarian security.
ireland northern suffers
Northern Ireland still suffers from its past, and it will take generations to escape sectarianism and for violence to end totally. Nonetheless, it is in a different place now than during the Troubles, and it will not go back to the old days.
clinton firmly lasted politics terms turned view virtually
I am firmly of the view we should keep the police out of politics in Britain, or we risk going the way of American politics, where the Whitewater investigation lasted virtually the whole of the two terms of the Clinton administration but turned up nothing.
aspired foreign labour solid
I'm a solid Labour party supporter. I aspired to be a Labour MP, but it's difficult to make the leap from the Foreign Office.
officer schools time
It was the rootlessness that went with being the son of an RAF officer that shaped me. I had been to 11 schools by the time I was 9.
apply argue course deal last lessons meet seem terrorist time utterly
Every time we meet a new terrorist group, we argue they are utterly different and we can learn nothing from the last time. Of course they are different, but some lessons on how we deal with them seem to apply in all cases.