In their words
Journalist Anthony Cheng will sit down with former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford on Sunday 23rd August 2026 to discuss the challenges facing diplomacy today, the route he took to become one of Washington DC’s leading figures on Middle Eastern issues, and the skills you need as a diplomatic confronting fast-evolving geopolitical challenges.
Amb. (ret.) Robert S. Ford is currently a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington where he writes about developments in the Levant and North Africa. Amb. Ford retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014. In this role, Amb. Ford was the State Department lead on Syria, proposing and implementing policy and developing common strategies with European and Middle Eastern allies to try to resolve the Syria conflict. Prior to this, Amb. Ford was the deputy U.S. Ambassador to Iraq from 2008 to 2010, and also served from 2006 until 2008 as the U.S. Ambassador to Algeria, where he boosted bilateral education and rule of law cooperation. Amb. Ford served as deputy chief of mission in Bahrain from 2001 until 2004, and political counselor to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2004 until 2006 during the tumultuous establishment of the new, permanent Iraqi government. In 2014 he received the Secretary’s Service Award, the U.S. State Department’s highest honor. He also received in April 2012 from the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston the annual Profile in Courage Award for his stout defense of human rights in Syria. He has appeared on CNN, PBS, Fox, MSNBC, NPR, the BBC and Arabic news networks as well as in The New York Times and Foreign Policy.
Anthony Cheng
Anthony Cheng is a journalist focusing on foreign affairs. He has been a producer at Times Radio, a national broadcasting arm of The Times and Sunday Times, for four years. His tenure there has seen him cover the most tumultuous geopolitical events in our recent times: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza conflict, and the latest US-Iran tensions. He has also made live radio current affairs programmes on the US Presidential and UK General elections.
Away from radio, he has worked in documentaries of various kinds, namely producing and recording a radio documentary on HMP Oakwood and their secrets to success in rehabilitating inmates hosted by the then-Political Editor Kate McCann. His independent visual classical music documentary Hidden Music - produced, directed, and edited by Anthony - has seen its world premiere at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Ohio, and The Athenaeum Club in London.
He has written for The Times and Sunday Times, i Paper, The Critic, and BBC Music Magazine where his latest feature highlights former Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth's recovery from stroke through learning the piano.
He holds a BMus (Hons) in Piano Performance, studying with a scholarship at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and a MA International Journalism degree from Cardiff University.
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Members will be able to access the full interview in the coming weeks.