Damian Valdez

Damian Valdez was born in Mexico City into a literary and political family that had experienced generations of political radicalism -- left-wing and right-wing. He was influenced by the powerful story-telling of his Communist grandfather, Carlos. He moved to the UK as a child in 1990. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with a Double First in History and went on to do a PhD there, and has lectured in political history at the University of Cambridge since 2009. He was also a post-doctoral fellow of the Klassik Stiftung in Weimar and is publishing an academic book about the global interests of the German thinker Max Weber. He sits on the advisory board of Cambridge Middle East and North Africa Forum [MENAF]. He is fluent in German and Spanish, and publishes essays on the history of world order for Engelsberg Ideas. He is now a Distinguished Fellow in International Order at the UK Council on Geostrategy.