Connor Hayes speaks with Carne Ross, former diplomat for the UK government, about his life and experiences as a diplomat, his decision to resign from the diplomatic service, and his work in diplomatic consulting at the Independent Diplomat.

Additional topics of discussion include his reasons for turning towards anarchist politics, the theory and history of anarchism, his relationship with the Kurdish movement and travels in Rojava, the issue of violence as political strategy, the importance of ecology in the present era, and the significance of the ineffable, or the realm of reality and human experience that is impossible to encapsulate in logic or language.

Carne Ross served as a member of Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service in the UK for 15 years, from 1989 to 2004, where his roles included being the UK’s representative to the UN in the period leading up to the Iraq war. Upon his resignation, he gave testimony to the UK parliament about the UK government’s lies to the public during the Iraq war, and underwent a personal transformation towards anarchist politics, which is portrayed in the autobiographical documentary Carne made entitled Accidental Anarchist.

He is the founder and former executive director of Independent Diplomat, an advisory group for opposition governments and democratic movements on diplomatic strategy. He is also the Associate Director for Geopolitics, Diplomacy and Security at E3G, a climate change think tank, and a member of the international advisory council of the Instituted for Integrated Transitions, and the author of the books Independent Diplomat: Dispatches from an Unaccountable Elite, and The Leaderless Revolution.

Connor Hayes is an activist, researcher, and a student of philosophy. He was a member of the 2019 International Peace Delegation to Imrali.

For further information, please see Carne’s website: https://www.carneross.com/

This interview is sponsored by the Peace in Kurdistan Campaign 

and the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities