Karen E. Smith is Professor of International Relations at LSE. Her main research interests lie in the fields of foreign policy analysis and the study of international organisations. She has recently published on feminist foreign policy, the role of women in diplomacy and foreign policy-making, the European Union’s diplomacy at the United Nations, and the role of groups in UN multilateralism.
Marta Kozielska is the co-founder and manager of the Women in Diplomacy Project at LSE IDEAS, where she leads the project’s strategic direction and oversees its activities.
She is a policy analyst and project manager with ten years of experience designing, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based policies and programmes across the UK and the European Union. Her work spans gender, social, and financial inclusion, fundamental rights, and European governance, having worked across academia, think tanks, consulting, and government.
Dr. Sara Chehab is the acting Academic Director and a Senior Research Fellow at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA) in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Dr Chehab curates the ‘Women and Diplomacy’ research programme at AGDA. She also trains diplomats on the Women, Peace and Security agenda and contemporary global and economic affairs. She is the lead researcher and author of the annual Women in Diplomacy Index, a unique measure of women ambassadors around the world. She also writes regular opinion pieces in the UAE press on the representation of women in foreign policy and the WPS agenda.
H.E. Dr. Fatou Bensouda served as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court from 2012 to 2021, becoming its first female Prosecutor after election by consensus with African Union support. Her mandate ended on 15 June 2021. She strengthened the Office through strategic reforms, overseeing fourteen investigations and numerous preliminary examinations worldwide. She advanced accountability for atrocity crimes, emphasizing sexual and gender-based crimes, crimes against children, and cultural heritage destruction.
Previously, she held senior legal offices in The Gambia and served at the ICTR before becoming the ICC’s first Deputy Prosecutor.
She received numerous international awards, global recognitions, a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, and Dr. Bensouda currently serves as The Gambian High Commissioner to the Court of St James’s and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Republics of Austria, Ireland, Finland and the State of Israel and the Vatican City.
H.E. Laura Popescu is the Ambassador of Romania to the United Kingdom and the country’s first woman ambassador in London. A career diplomat holding the rank of Ambassador, she was named Diplomat of the Year from Europe in 2023 by the diplomatic corps in London. She also served as President of the Women in Diplomacy Network London.
Prior to her posting in London, she held several senior roles at the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, served as a counsellor within the Romanian Presidential Administration and was Deputy Head of Mission at Romania’s Embassy in Berlin.
Alexander Evans is Associate Dean for Strategic Development at the LSE School of Public Policy, Professor in Practice in Public Policy, and Director of the LSE IDEAS Ratiu Forum.
He joined the British Diplomatic Service in 2003. He has served in 10 Downing Street as an Adviser to the Prime Minister, as Strategy Director and Exco member in the Cabinet Office, and Director Cyber in the Foreign Office. He was a member of the Policy Planning Staff. His overseas roles include serving as Deputy and Acting High Commissioner to India and (briefly) Pakistan, leading the United Nations Security Council expert group on Daesh, Al Qaida and the Taliban, and being a senior advisor to the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke in the U.S. Department of State during the first Obama Administration. He was awarded an OBE in 2010 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2023.