Radosław Sikorski

Radosław Tomasz "Radek" Sikorski (born 23 February 1963) is a Polish politician, journalist and statesman who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland in Donald Tusk's cabinet since 2023, previously holding the office between 2007 and 2014.

In the mid-1980s, Sikorski worked as a freelance journalist for publications such as The Spectator and The Observer.

He also wrote for the Indian newspaper The Statesman of Kolkata.

He chaired the local student strike committee in March 1981 while studying at the I Liceum Ogólnokształcące (High School).

In June 1981 he travelled to the United Kingdom to study English.

After martial law was declared in December 1981, he was granted political asylum in Britain in 1982.

He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Pembroke College, University of Oxford.

During his time at Oxford, Sikorski was head of the Standing Committee of the debating society, the Oxford Union (where he organised debates on martial law), president of the Oxford University Polish Society, member of the Canning Club, and was elected to the Bullingdon Club, a dining society that counted among its members former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, former Chancellor George Osborne, and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

His articles were published in prestigious Polish émigré magazines as well as Britain's Sunday Telegraph and Tatler magazines.

A graduate member of Pembroke College, Oxford, between 1986 and 1989 he worked as a journalist for The Observer and The Spectator and in 1986 was a war correspondent in Afghanistan.

He graduated in 1986.

In 1986, he travelled in Afghanistan, as he stated in his book, "to write about the war the mujahideen were waging against the Soviet Union".

While a war correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph, he brought out the first report and photographs of the US Stinger missiles, whose use was a turning point in the war.

In 1987, Sikorski acquired British citizenship, which he renounced in 2006 upon being named Minister of Defence of Poland.

In 1987, he made a hundred-day journey, under Soviet bombardment, to the ancient city of Herat.

He won the 1st prize singles in category the category Spot News of World Press Photo Awards in 1988 for a photograph of a family killed and mummified in their home as a result of communist bombing raid.

His adventures were presented in the documentary "Polish Mujahideen: Radosław Sikorski", produced by Discovery Channel.

Sikorski described his perilous journey to Herat in his first book Dust of the Saints: A Journey to Herat in Time of War.

In 1989, he reported on the conflict in Angola.

In 1989, he became the chief foreign correspondent for the U.S. conservative magazine National Review, reporting from Afghanistan and Angola.

He received praise for his article published in January 1989, "The coming crack-up of Communism", which proved prophetic.

His article describing an ambush on the Benguela Highway conducted by Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebels attracted widespread interest.

Sikorski returned to Poland in August 1989.

In 1990–91, he was the Warsaw correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph.

He was the author of the Interview of the Month program on the public Polish TV, in which he interviewed Margaret Thatcher, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Klaus, Otto von Habsburg, Henry Kissinger, Qian Qichen and others.

He previously served as Deputy Minister of National Defence (1992) in Jan Olszewski's cabinet, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1998–2001) in Jerzy Buzek's cabinet and Minister of National Defence (2005–2007) in the cabinets of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński.

He briefly served as deputy defence minister in the Jan Olszewski government in 1992, in which he helped launch the Polish bid to join NATO.

From 1998 to 2001, Sikorski served as undersecretary of state at the ministry of foreign affairs in the Jerzy Buzek's government, being deputy first to Bronisław Geremek, and then to Władysław Bartoszewski.

He oversaw the consular service and initiated reforms of services for Poles abroad.

He signed agreements to abolish visas with countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Singapore and Israel among them.

He was Honorary Chairman of the Foundation for Assistance to Poles in the East.

During his time as a Deputy Foreign Minister, Sikorski focused on reforms inside the Ministry and started the campaign to protest the use of the misleading term "Polish concentration camps" in western media.

Between 2003 and 2005, he was a member of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.

In 2012, he was included on the list of Top 100 Global Thinkers 2012 published by Foreign Policy magazine.

Earlier he was Marshal of the Sejm from 2014 to 2015.

In 2015, he became a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Studies of Harvard University.

He is a Senior Network Member at the European Leadership Network (ELN).

He is a member of the Civic Platform, in which he is seen as being part of the party's Right-wing.

Sikorski was born in Bydgoszcz.

He was a Member of the European Parliament between 2019 and 2023.