Radek Sikorski

Radek Sikorski is a prominent Polish politician and member of the European Parliament. As such, het is part of the Committee on Foreign Affairs among other committees, and chairs the Delegation for relations with the United States. He served as Poland’s Minister of National Defense between 2005 and 2007 and Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2007 and 2014, in which capacity he met with Putin and Lavrov among others. After completing his master’s in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford — where he studied together with Boris Johnson — Sikorski worked as a freelance journalist for The Spectator and The Observer among other magazines. In 1986, he bravely went to Afghanistan to be a war correspondent, travelling along the mudjahedin while they fought and were bombarded by the Soviets; his experiences during this year form the basis of his book Dust of the Saints. A Journey to Herat in Time of War (1989). One of the many captivating photographs he took during the journey, of a family killed and mummified in their home as a result of the bombings, received a World Press Photo first prize in 1988. Sikorski has published various other books — mainly on Polish history and politics — since, and was included in Foreign Policy’s list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2012. He has been awarded several more prizes and decorations for his journalistic writings and his political achievements. Together with his wife Anne Applebaum, he has been combatting Putin’s regime and aggression against Ukraine for years.