{"id":3548,"date":"2009-07-31T22:42:39","date_gmt":"2009-07-31T22:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=3548"},"modified":"2009-07-31T22:42:39","modified_gmt":"2009-07-31T22:42:39","slug":"lunch_with_rory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=3548","title":{"rendered":"Lunch with Rory Stewart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emily Stokes<\/a>: <\/p>\n

I was thinking we should do questions first and chat later,\u201d says Rory Stewart, 36 and director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights at Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School. I ask if the distinction is absolutely necessary; we are, after all, settling down for lunch, not preparing for a seminar.
\n


\n\u201cThere might\u201d, he says, \u201cbe a holistic theory that there\u2019s no real distinction between interview and personal chat, just like there\u2019s a theory that there\u2019s no distinction between development, state-building and counter-insurgency, but I like to see things in categories.\u201d He pauses to gauge whether I\u2019m still following: \u201cIt\u2019s like my belief that counter-terrorism is completely different from development.\u201d
\n


\nIt is perhaps not surprising Stewart has no time for small talk. He has walked 6,000 miles across Asia; written a bestselling travel book at 28, and last year was chosen as one of Esquire magazine\u2019s 75 most influential people of the 21st century.
\n


\nUpon accepting the position at Harvard, he bought a huge house in Cambridge, where he now lives alone, filling it with furniture from his family home in the Scottish Highlands \u2013 evidence, perhaps, that he had renounced the life of an adventurer and charity director in Asia to settle down.
\n


\nThe restaurant where we meet is certainly sedate. Harvest specialises in New England cuisine (stews and seafood). Jazz plays in the background, and the napkins are shaped into concertinas. Stewart greets me with a toothy smile, sits down and, after a brief tutorial on the difference between counter-terrorism and development, opens a menu. He has, he says, had clam chowder for breakfast, and, undaunted by the prospect of yet more soupy seafood, orders mussels, followed by bouillabaisse. \u201cOh yes, I\u2019m very New England,\u201d he says.
\n


\nStewart has a detached way of speaking, in perfect paragraphs, without hesitation. He once told a former colleague that he added \u201cum\u201ds and \u201cer\u201ds to his speech at school because he was scaring the other children. You can tell when he is excited by a topic because his speech seems less scripted, and he surprises me by becoming more animated when I ask him about whether he feels at home in Cambridge \u2013 even though he answers my question by talking about Afghanistan: \u201cThere, I wake up looking at a mud courtyard with peacocks prancing on the grass; I go down to the old city\u2026\u201d
\n


\nSince arriving at Harvard in June last year, he has been consultant to several members of Barack Obama\u2019s administration, including Hillary Clinton, and is a member of Richard Holbrooke\u2019s special committee for Afghanistan and Pakistan policy. \u201cI do a lot of work with policymakers, but how much effect am I having?\u201d he asks, pronging a mussel out of its shell.
\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s like they\u2019re coming in and saying to you, \u2018I\u2019m going to drive my car off a cliff. Should I or should I not wear a seatbelt?\u2019 And you say, \u2018I don\u2019t think you should drive your car off the cliff.\u2019 And they say, \u2018No, no, that bit\u2019s already been decided \u2013 the question is whether to wear a seatbelt.\u2019 And you say, \u2018Well, you might as well wear a seatbelt.\u2019 And then they say, \u2018We\u2019ve consulted with policy expert Rory Stewart and he says …\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emily Stokes<\/a>: <\/p>\n

I was thinking we should do questions first and chat later,\u201d says Rory Stewart, 36 and director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights at Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School. I ask if the distinction is absolutely necessary; we are, after all, settling down for lunch, not preparing for a seminar.
\n


\n\u201cThere might\u201d, he says, \u201cbe a holistic theory that there\u2019s no real distinction between interview and personal chat, just like there\u2019s a theory that there\u2019s no distinction between development, state-building and counter-insurgency, but I like to see things in categories.\u201d He pauses to gauge whether I\u2019m still following: \u201cIt\u2019s like my belief that counter-terrorism is completely different from development.\u201d
\n


\nIt is perhaps not surprising Stewart has no time for small talk. He has walked 6,000 miles across Asia; written a bestselling travel book at 28, and last year was chosen as one of Esquire magazine\u2019s 75 most influential people of the 21st century.
\n


\nUpon accepting the position at Harvard, he bought a huge house in Cambridge, where he now lives alone, filling it with furniture from his family home in the Scottish Highlands \u2013 evidence, perhaps, that he had renounced the life of an adventurer and charity director in Asia to settle down.
\n


\nThe restaurant where we meet is certainly sedate. Harvest specialises in New England cuisine (stews and seafood). Jazz plays in the background, and the napkins are shaped into concertinas. Stewart greets me with a toothy smile, sits down and, after a brief tutorial on the difference between counter-terrorism and development, opens a menu. He has, he says, had clam chowder for breakfast, and, undaunted by the prospect of yet more soupy seafood, orders mussels, followed by bouillabaisse. \u201cOh yes, I\u2019m very New England,\u201d he says.
\n


\nStewart has a detached way of speaking, in perfect paragraphs, without hesitation. He once told a former colleague that he added \u201cum\u201ds and \u201cer\u201ds to his speech at school because he was scaring the other children. You can tell when he is excited by a topic because his speech seems less scripted, and he surprises me by becoming more animated when I ask him about whether he feels at home in Cambridge \u2013 even though he answers my question by talking about Afghanistan: \u201cThere, I wake up looking at a mud courtyard with peacocks prancing on the grass; I go down to the old city\u2026\u201d
\n


\nSince arriving at Harvard in June last year, he has been consultant to several members of Barack Obama\u2019s administration, including Hillary Clinton, and is a member of Richard Holbrooke\u2019s special committee for Afghanistan and Pakistan policy. \u201cI do a lot of work with policymakers, but how much effect am I having?\u201d he asks, pronging a mussel out of its shell.
\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s like they\u2019re coming in and saying to you, \u2018I\u2019m going to drive my car off a cliff. Should I or should I not wear a seatbelt?\u2019 And you say, \u2018I don\u2019t think you should drive your car off the cliff.\u2019 And they say, \u2018No, no, that bit\u2019s already been decided \u2013 the question is whether to wear a seatbelt.\u2019 And you say, \u2018Well, you might as well wear a seatbelt.\u2019 And then they say, \u2018We\u2019ve consulted with policy expert Rory Stewart and he says …\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,39,33,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}