The New Diplomacy Project’s Advisory Board includes experienced foreign policy practitioners across multiple generations committed to a progressive foreign policy in the UK.

Sir David Manning, served as the UK Ambassador to the United States of America (2003-2007), the UK Permanent Representative to NATO (2001), UK Ambassador to Israel (1995-1998), and was the principal Foreign Policy Advisor to the UK Prime Minister (2001-2003).

Lord David Owen, served as the UK Foreign Secretary (1977-1979), UK Minister of State for Health (1974-76), and UK Minister of State at the Foreign Office (1976-77), Leader of the Social Democratic Party (1983-1987), and the EU Co--Chairman of the Conference for the Former Yugoslavia (1992-1995).

Lord Sonny Leong CBE is a Labour Member of the House of Lords and currently Shadow Minister for Business and Trade. Lord Leong founded Small and Medium Enterprises for Labour and East and South East Asians for Labour, as well as Chief Executive of Civil Service College.  He has had a long career as a social entrepreneur and founded Cavendish Publishing.

Isabelle Younane is the Head of External Affairs at Women’s Aid.  Isabelle previously served as an Executive Committee Member of the New Diplomacy Project (2021-2023), Senior Advocacy Manager at ActionAid UK, Policy and External Relations Manager at the British Council, and Campaigns and Communications Officer at the United Nations Association.

Yuan Yang is the Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Earley and Woodley. She previously served as the Deputy-Bureau Chief in Beijing for the Financial Times and the UK-China correspondent.  She is co-founder of the campaign, Rethinking Economics, that calls for a more relevant curriculum that reflects the real world. Her first book, Private Revolutions, explores inequality in China through the lives of five women, will be published by Bloomsbury this year.

Isabella Wilkinson is a Research Fellow in the Digital Society Initiative at Chatham House. She previously served as a Research Associate in Chatham House’s International Security Programme and part of the Journal of Cyber Policy’s editorial team. Isabella co-leads Women in International Security UK and was part of CIDOB-Santander’s ‘35 Under 35 List’ Future Leaders Forum 2022. In 2023, she was a Visiting Fellow at The Hague Program for International Cybersecurity.

Sir Ciaran Devane served as Chief Executive of the British Council (2015-2021), is the Director of the Centre for Trust, Peace, and Social Relations at Coventry University, Chair of the Irish Health Service, (the HSE), and a trustee of Friends of Europe and of the British-Irish Association.