Peter Jenkins (diplomat) - Life and Career

Life and Career

Born in 1950, he joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1973, having graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in Classical Philosophy, and having spent two years at the Harvard Graduate School for Arts and Sciences as a Harkness Fellow.

His 33-year diplomatic career took him to Vienna (twice), Washington, D.C., Paris, Brasília and Geneva.

In Washington he was Private Secretary to two Ambassadors. In Paris he promoted Franco-British economic and energy ties, and dealt with issues arising from the creation of a European single market. After a spell helping to strengthen Anglo-Brazilian political and economic relations post-1993, he became the UK's chief representative to the World Trade Organisation in the run-up to the launch of the Doha Round.

In 2001 he was made Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency and other UN organisations at Vienna. There his primary focus was on the nuclear aspects of international peace and security, especially the Iranian nuclear issue.

On leaving the Diplomatic Service in 2006 he worked as a special representative for the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership in Vienna, and as an adviser to the director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, a global public policy research institute, before qualifying as a civil and commercial mediator. Since 2010 he has been a partner in The Ambassador Partnership LLP. From 2010 to 2012 he was an associate fellow of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He is a frequent contributor, on the Iranian nuclear question, to LobeLog.