Past Event
Seminar

The Head of State and Diplomatic Practice

Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Sir Christopher Geidt is Private Secretary to her Majesty the Queen and fall 2014 Fisher Family Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project. Sir Christopher is the principal adviser to the Queen and channel of communication with the governments of the sixteen countries of which she is Head of State. Previously, he served as a diplomat with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office during the conflicts in the Balkans.

The Head of State and Diplomatic Practice

About

A conversation with Sir Christopher Geidt, Private Secretary to her Majesty the Queen and fall 2014 Fisher Family Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project, on practical diplomacy in a constitutional monarchy.

Sir Christopher Geidt is a fall 2014 Fisher Family Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project. Sir Christopher is the principal adviser to the Queen and channel of communication with the governments of the sixteen countries of which she is Head of State. Geidt was closely involved in the formation in 2010 of the present British Government (the first coalition in over a generation), the process leading to the historic 2011 state visit to Ireland, and the recent independence referendum in Scotland.

Sir Christopher joined the Royal Household in 2002. Previously, he served as a diplomat with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office during the conflicts in the Balkans (1994-2001), including four years as Special Assistant to Carl Bildt in the latter's capacity as co-chair of the Dayton Peace Talks, High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and UN Special Envoy for the Balkans. Geidt was formerly an Assistant Director at the Royal United Services Institute in London with research interests in the international aspects of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and Cambodia. Geidt also saw military service in Iraq, Kuwait, Cambodia and Bosnia.