Sir Robert Cooper is a former British diplomat who served as Special Advisor on Myanmar at the European Commission and was involved in the development of the EU’s Security Strategy, nuclear deal negotiations with Iran and on Balkan issues.
Robert Cooper grew up in Kenya. He was educated there, at Oxford and at the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1970, partly by accident, serving in New York, Tokyo, Brussels and Bonn, and was Head of the Policy Planning Staff in London. He was later Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet under Tony Blair, and the UK's Special Representative on Afghanistan. From 2002 he worked for the EU High Representative, Javier Solana and Catherine Ashton on a wide range of issues including Iran, the Balkans and Myanmar.
He is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. He has published a number of essays and articles. His book, The Breaking of Nations (2000) won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.