Diplomatic career Powell joined the
FCO in 1979 and was posted as
Third Secretary, later
Second Secretary, to
Lisbon in 1981. He was subsequently posted to UKDEL (UK Delegation to the Conference for Disarmament in Europe)
Stockholm in 1986 and to UKDEL
CSCE (UK Delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe)
Vienna in September 1986. In November 2010, Powell wrote an article for
The Guardian that was critical of the publication by
WikiLeaks of the contents of
US diplomatic cables. Powell argued, "It is very difficult to conduct diplomacy effectively when your confidential deliberations are made public in this way. Mutual trust is the basis of such relations and once that trust is breached, candid conversations are less likely. It is like having a conversation in the pub with your best mate about problems with your girlfriend and then finding the content, possibly with a bit of spin added, posted on the internet. You won't be having that conversation again any time soon." During his posting to Washington DC, Powell connected to Bill Clinton. He later described Clinton as a "long-shot candidate" and explained that they got in touch "because he had been at my college at Oxford". Powell was desk officer for the negotiations on
giving Hong Kong back to the Chinese in 1983–85, and for the
Two Plus Four talks on German unification from 1989 to 1990. Powell was posted to the
British Embassy in Washington in 1991 and attached himself to
Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign as an observer. He later introduced
Tony Blair to Bill Clinton and his team after the election.
Downing Street Chief of Staff Shortly after his election as
Leader of the Labour Party,
Tony Blair asked Powell to become his chief of staff. Powell initially declined the offer, although he later left the diplomatic service in 1995 to become the Chief of Staff to the Opposition Leader. His book
Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland details the negotiations which led to the Agreement which devised and put in place a devolved, power-sharing government for Northern Ireland. Powell continued to be both a key right-hand man for Blair throughout his time in office, as well as a trusted adviser on a wide range of policy issues. He was described by
The Guardian as being "at the heart of all his (Blair's) key foreign policy initiatives." It is believed he was questioned twice by police, the second time under caution, during the investigation into the
Cash for Honours affair. While many in Blair's "kitchen cabinet" – including
Alastair Campbell – departed before Blair's resignation, Powell remained in Downing Street until June 2007. In February 2012
Peter Oborne, a
Daily Telegraph journalist, criticised Powell for divulging sensitive information about the activities of
MI6 in
Russia. He told a BBC documentary,
Putin, Russia and the West, how MI6 had in 2006 used a "fake rock filled with surveillance devices as a means of communication with their agents in
Moscow". Oborne described this as a "propaganda gift for
Vladimir Putin", as it soon after featured heavily in a programme screened on prime-time Russian state TV. The footage was used to attack opponents of Putin who at the time, in 2006, had doubted Kremlin reports of MI6's activity in Russia. In the view of Oborne, "Powell's indiscretion was used to make a full-frontal attack on some of the most respected independent critics of the regime" and Powell had become a "
useful idiot" for Putin.
Post Downing Street Powell was a banker at Morgan Stanley from 2007 to 2009. In 2011 he founded the charity
Inter Mediate with Martin Griffiths to work on armed conflicts around the world. Since 2013 he has also been a member of the Board of
Save the Children International. In May 2014 British prime minister
David Cameron appointed Powell as the UK special envoy to Libya to promote dialogue between rival factions in the country. In March 2017 he was appointed
Honorary Professor in the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at
Queen's University Belfast. Throughout 2023 and 2024, Powell reportedly helped to establish channels of communication between UK intelligence services and the Syrian paramilitary group
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham. As head of Inter Mediate, which had a significant presence in Syria during the
Syrian civil war, Powell arranged meetings between Western officials and HTS leader
Ahmed al-Sharaa which were aimed at persuading al-Sharaa to abandon armed conflict and enter "regular politics". Powell's efforts were credited with making Syria safe enough for Western officials to visit after the
fall of the Assad regime and al-Sharaa's ascendance to president of Syria. On 3 October an announcement from the UK and Mauritius stated that the issue had been resolved and that the UK was to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
National Security Adviser On 8 November 2024, he was announced as the next
National Security Adviser, in succession to
Sir Tim Barrow, and as such will once again be based in No 10 Downing Street. He took up the appointment in December 2024. In 2025
Bridget Phillipson stated Powell had no role in the collapsed case against two men accused of
spying for China. The Conservatives have suggested Powell, had a role in not giving prosecutors evidence they said they needed to secure convictions. Following the outbreak of the
2026 Iran war,
The Guardian revealed that Powell had acted as an adviser during the preceding
Geneva nuclear talks. Powell reportedly viewed the Iranian proposals as a significant basis for a deal, a position that contributed to the UK’s initial reluctance to support the subsequent U.S.-led military strikes. ==Inquiries==