In this event hosted by Centre for Statecraft and National Security, Dr Claire Yorke will present her new book 'Empathy in Politics and Leadership: The Key to Transforming Our World'

Our current political context appears to be defined by heightened tensions and divisions, violence, identity politics, and an inability of those in leadership positions to address the critical challenges in society. With recent protests in London, and marches by the far-right, it seems to be getting harder to find common ground and engage in dialogue with those with different world views and visions for society. Against this backdrop, there are growing calls for empathy, and for change. However, empathy is often easily championed, but far harder to put into practice.

In this event, Dr Claire Yorke will speak about the core ideas of her new book ‘Empathy in Politics and Leadership: The Key to Transforming our World' (due to be released on 14 October by Yale University Press), and what is needed to create political ecosystems that enable care, empathy, and understanding to thrive. She will be joined by Jennifer Nadel, a bestselling author, former journalist, and co-founder and Director of Compassion in Politics. Jennifer has been leading initiatives to transform political culture, in Westminster and beyond. She will share insights from her experience on what is being done, and what more is needed. They will both explore how ideas such as empathy and compassion can be put into practice, the limits and challenges they present, and what citizens can do to contribute to changing our present status quo.

Participants will be able to buy advance copies of the book on the evening.

About the Speakers:

Dr Claire Yorke is an author, academic, and Kings College alumni. Her expertise is in the role of empathy and emotions in international affairs, politics, leadership, and society. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Australian War College, Deakin University, Canberra, where her research and teaching focus on these topics. She is also the author of ‘Empathy in Politics and Leadership: The Key to Transforming our World’, published in October 2025 by Yale University Press.

In an international career she has lived in the UK, France, Denmark, and the United States. Between September 2021-2023, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at the Centre for War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark, leading an original project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Fund on Empathy and International Security (EIS). Prior to that, between 2018-2020, she was a Henry A. Kissinger Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at International Security Studies and the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University. She completed her PhD in International Relations at the Department of War Studies in 2018. Before academia, Claire began her career working for over seven years in politics and policy, first as a Parliamentary Researcher for a frontbencher politician in the House of Commons, and then as Programme Manager of the International Security Department, at Chatham House.

Jennifer Nadel is a transformational leader, award winning journalist, international speaker and bestselling author. She’s also a qualified barrister, political and communications strategist and commentator. Currently, she leads the UK think tank, Compassion In Politics and is Director of Compassionate Politics at Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education..

She has reported from around the world for the BBC, Channel Four News and ITN. As ITV’s Home Affairs Editor, she was one of the UK’s most senior female television correspondents and was renowned for her investigative reporting and impactful journalism. Her exposure of the use of rape as a weapon of war in Bosnia was used by UN War Crimes investigators and her book on gender based violence is credited with helping to shift UK law as well as being made into a film and documentary.

With over 30 years’ experience working in and around Westminster, Jennifer has advised local and national political campaigns, trained politicians, sat on the National Executive Committee of the Green Party with responsibility for its communications and campaigns strategy and shaped the Party’s second referendum response to Brexit.

In 2018, she stepped away from party politics to co-found the cross-party UK based think tank, Compassion in Politics, which has the active engagement of over 100 MPs from across the political spectrum. It provides the Secretariat for the APPG on Compassionate Politics and its research and policy initiatives are used by Committees and referenced on the floor of the House. Their advice is sought by other governments, politicians and political parties.