News

Lunch with the Financial Times

Article first published in The Financial Times by Emily Stokes on 1 August 2009. I was thinking we should do questions first and chat later,” says Rory Stewart, 36 and director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights at Harvard’s Kennedy School. I ask if the distinction is absolutely necessary; we are, after all, settling down […]

RORY STEWART I PRESUME

Article first published in The Guardian by Jason Bourke on 17 May 2009. A chilly spring evening in Kabul. On a hill in the southwest of the city is a mud-walled fort. Behind its high walls are a series of courtyards, corridors with traditional wooden carved panels and ornate shelving in moulded clay. In the […]

BEST BOOKS…CHOSEN BY RORY STEWART

Article first published in The Week on 14 May 2009. The author of the best-selling Afghanistan memoir The Places in Between serves as director of Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Below, he names his favorite travel books. The Baburnama by Zahiruddin Babur Shah (out of print). The 500-year-old diary of Babur, the […]

PROFILE: RORY STEWART

Article first published in the New Statesman by Lucy Knight on 2 December 2008. Early life Stewart was born in Hong Kong in 1973. His father Brian, a military man had fought on the beaches of Normandy and then became a diplomat, while his mother Sally, is an academic and economist. He has two older […]

The ‘Good War’ Isn’t Worth Fighting

First published in the New York Times on 23 November 2008. Afghanistan does not matter as much as Barack Obama thinks. Terrorism is not the key strategic threat facing the United States. America, Britain and our allies have not created a positive stable environment in the Middle East. We have no clear strategy for dealing […]

Rory’s appearance on Desert Island Discs

Rory was invited to go on Desert Island Discs in January 2008, where he was interviewed by Kirsty Young. Click on the link below to listen to the programme, where you can find out about the eight music tracks, the book and the luxury item that Rory chose to accompany him on this imaginary island. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008pdqp 

How to Save Afghanistan

First published in Time magazine, July 17, 2008. It is summer now in Kabul, the snow has largely melted from the 15,000-ft. (4,600 m) peaks, and I am sitting with my friends Hussein, Nabi and Zia in the garden of a 19th century fort. Nearby, 10 carpenters who work with my nongovernmental organization (NGO) are […]