Welcome to the personal website of Gareth Evans

Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AO QC has been Chancellor of the Australian National University since January 2010, and a Professorial Fellow at The University of Melbourne since July 2009, and is President Emeritus of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, the independent global conflict prevention and resolution organisation which he led from 2000 to 2009.

He previously spent 21 years in Australian politics, thirteen of them as a Cabinet Minister. As Foreign Minister (1988-96) he was best known internationally for his roles in developing the UN peace plan for Cambodia, concluding the Chemical Weapons Convention, and initiating new Asia Pacific regional economic and security architecture. He has written or edited nine books - most recently The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All, published by the Brookings Institution in 2008 (paperback edition 2009) - and has published over 100 journal articles and chapters on foreign relations, human rights and legal and constitutional reform.

He has co-chaired two major International Commissions, on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2000-01), and Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (2008-10) whose report Eliminating Nuclear Threats was published in December 2009. He was a member of the UN Secretary General's High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change (2004), the Blix Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction (2006), the Zedillo Commission of Eminent Persons on The Role of the IAEA to 2020 and Beyond (2008) and the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Committee on Genocide Prevention. He is Co-Chair of the International Advisory Board of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.

In May 2010 Gareth Evans was awarded the 2010 Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Four Freedoms Award for Freedom from Fear, for his pioneering work on the Responsibility to Protect concept, and his contributions to conflict prevention and resolution, arms control and disarmament. In December 2011 Foreign Policy magazine cited him as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers for 2011 "for making 'the responsibility to protect' more than academic".

(December 2011)

Click here for a full-length biography.

Recent Speeches, Papers and Comments

"Australia in the Asian Century: Foreign Policy Challenges", 2012 International Affairs Oration, International House, Melbourne, 10 May 2012

"Interview with Gareth Evans, ex-Australian Foreign Minister", YourCommonwealth.org, 1 May 2012

"Keeping Cool in the Nuclear Heat", in Project Syndicate (Worldwide Distribution), 25 April 2012

"Cambodia Past and Present", Keynote Remarks to ISEAS International Conference on Cambodia: Progress and Challenges Since 1991, Singapore, 29 March 2012

"A World Free of Nuclear Risk: Re-Engergising Global Policymakers", Address to the International House of Japan/ANU Japan Alumni Association program, Rethinking Nuclear Non-Proliferation and the Nuclear Issue, Tokyo, 28 March 2012

"Saving the Syrians", in Project Syndicate (Worldwide Distribution), 23 March 2012

"The Middle East in Revolt: Twelve Months On", Opening Address, University of Melbourne Asia Institute/Freedom House Conference, Middle East in Revolt: The First Anniversary, Melbourne, 17 March 2012

"Letter in Response to Alex de Waal, 'How to End Mass Atrocities'", in The New York Times, 11 March 2012

"Cabinet reshuffle: Gareth Evans on Bob Carr", Interview with The Conversation, 2 March 2012

"National interest and pride demand we fight to join the UN Security Council", in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 March 2012

"Nuclear Disarmament's Midnight Hour", in Project Syndicate (Worldwide Distribution), 28 February 2012

"Responsibility While Protecting", in Project Syndicate (Worldwide Distribution), 27 January 2012

"We can prevent famine if we heed the warnings", in The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 January 2012

"Australia’s Distinctive Presence in the World: And Why Winning a Security Council Seat Matters", Australia Day 2012 Breakfast Address, Parliament House, Melbourne, 26 January 2012

"R2P after Libya: The State of Play - And Next Steps", Notes of Presentation, Group of Friends of R2P, 19 January 2012

All Speeches and Publications

Recent Videos and Broadcasts

Keynote Address: The Evolution of the Responsibility to Protect, The Stanley Foundation, New York, 17 January 2012

Responding to Mass Atrocity Crimes: The Responsibility to Protect After Libya, Chatham House, London, 6 October 2011

Debate: Intelligence Squared Debate: WikiLeaks as a Force for Good?, Big Ideas, Sydney, 23 June 2011

Keynote Address: War, Peace and National Identity, Festival of Ideas, Melbourne, 15 June 2011

Interview: Libya and the Responsibility to Protect, Newsline, 15 June 2011

Expert Panel: International Responses to Democratisation in the Arab World, Melbourne, 13 May 2011

All Videos and Broadcasts

Site last updated 11 May 2012