Jonathan Powell has spent nearly 20 years mediating between governments and terrorists.
He was Chief British negotiator on Northern Ireland between 1997 and 2007. In 1997, he met Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and became key to the peace process.
His father was hit by an IRA bullet in an ambush in 1940. When he first met Adams and McGuinness, he refused to shake their hands, “ a petty gesture” which he now regrets. He was with Tony Blair, who did shake their hands – and was soon mobbed by a crowd of old ladies throwing rubber gloves at him.
He believes governments always proclaim that they will never “negotiate with evil”. But they have always done so and always will.
In later years he wrote some of Gerry Adams’ most important speeches, including on decommissioning.
In 2008, he said western governments should talk to the Taliban, Hamas and al-Qaeda. He is the UK’s Special Envoy to Libya.
