Kadira Pethiyagoda

Dr Kadira Pethiyagoda is an Australian, UK-based public intellectual. He is a foreign policy expert, author and politician who has published in Foreign Affairs, The Guardian and cited by New York Times. He was a diplomat and foreign policy advisor to politicians, including the Shadow Foreign Minister, and held positions at University of Oxford and the Brookings Institution specializing on Asian geopolitics and Indian foreign policy. Pethiyagoda has called for democratizing foreign policy, argued against interventionism, and advocated for animal rights. He stood for Australian Parliament and for the role of Oxford Chancellor.
==Early life and education==
Pethiyagoda was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka. At age one, his family migrated to Melbourne, Australia. He grew up in Dandenong, attending Dandenong High School, Melbourne High School and the Overseas School of Colombo. His grandfather had contested local elections in Kandy.
Pethiyagoda obtained qualifications from New College, University of Oxford (Master of International Human Rights Law), University of Melbourne (PhD in Political Science – International Relations), Monash University (Bachelor of Arts; Master of Business Systems) and City University (Graduate Diploma in Law). One year of his PhD was completed at University of Oxford's Department of Politics and International Relations. He is a Lord Denning Scholar and Lord Steyn Scholar at Lincoln's Inn where he won the Debate Shield and Debate Dinner.
==Career==
Pethiyagoda commenced his career as a graduate at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. His posting as a diplomat inspired his PhD and book Indian Foreign Policy and Cultural Values. His PhD was co-supervised by former Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans.
Pethiyagoda was an advisor to Australia's Shadow Foreign Minister and provided advice to the Deputy Chair of Australian Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee. He was a Senior Advisor at Australia's Refugee Tribunal. He spent time at the International Criminal Court's Appeals Chamber and Office of the Vice-President, Luz Ibanez. He is on Court's list of Assistant Counsel.
In his academic career, Pethiyagoda was elected by the Governing Body Fellows of University of Oxford's St Antony's College to be a Senior Associate Member. He was also a Research Associate at Oxford's Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. He researched Indian foreign policy. He also taught on South Asia's International Relations at Oxford's Lady Margaret Hall.
He became a fellow at the Brookings Institution, specializing on Asia-Middle East relations. Pethiyagoda was also a fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and Director of Research, of the Global Governance Programme at Sri Lanka's Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies. He is a Foreign Affairs and International Law Expert at the Australia-India Institute at University of Melbourne.
Pethiyagoda ran for Australian Parliament in 2019 for the seat of Aston in Victoria, coming second to the incumbent, Minister for Infrastructure, Alan Tudge. His campaign was shadowed by the New York Times. He was mentored by MP Jude Perera and Minister Luke Donellan. Pethiyagoda also completed the UK Labour Party's Future Candidates Programme.
Pethiyagoda stood for the position of Chancellor of Oxford University in 2024. He stated "Growing up as a Sri Lankan migrant shaped by Tolkien, Carrol etc., Oxford was always as a place of wonder, redemption and kindness. To this I offer my service".
==Media==
Pethiyagoda has appeared as an expert on BBC, Al-Jazeera, ABC, WION, Republic TV, Channel Nine, and Chinese media, and been interviewed/cited by The New York Times.
His foreign policy and political commentary has been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Independent, The National Interest , Times of India, South China Morning Post, The Island, The National, Lowy Institute, European Council for Foreign Affairs, and Australian Financial Review. He had a blog for The Huffington Post.
==Indian Foreign Policy==
Pethiyagoda's book argues cultural values have greater explanatory power in relation to Indian foreign policy than previously thought and describes the nature of their influence. It highlights the role of values like non-violence in shaping India's nuclear posture and tolerance in affecting for acceptance of diverse regime-types. Pethiyagoda authored the chapter 'India and the Gulf States', in External Powers and the Gulf Monarchies.
During the Israel-Gaza war, Pethiyagoda argued that India's great-power ambitions, including for a multipolar world order, may prevent it from espousing an overtly pro-Israel stance over the long-term. He states "New Delhi's overarching strategic vision, held by the public, most political leaders, and the permanent foreign-policy establishment (civil servants, influential think tanks, etc.) is that of a multipolar world order, in which India is one of the poles. This will eventually necessitate that it engage with the Israel-Palestine crisis not as a South Asian regional power, but as a great power." Achieving India's interests in the Middle East "means expanding New Delhi's strategic power in relation to both the current hegemon—the United States—and regional powers".
==Democratizing Foreign Policy==
Pethiyagoda has argued for democratizing foreign policy. He states "the tectonic shifts occurring simultaneously in both geopolitics and domestic politics open the possibilities for a powerful, crosscutting new platform for rising political leaders— one of democratizing foreign policy". He has claims that "Large swathes of the public, on both the left and right, believe that the foreign policy status quo of incessant interventionism has brought little benefit to ordinary Americans".
==Animal Rights==
Pethiyagoda has advocated for the rights of non-human animals. During his campaign for Oxford Chancellor, he stated "For a century we have known from Darwin's theory of evolution that homo sapiens differ from other species in degree and in time, not in kind. Now, science has proven that which was already intuitive: that the qualities that logically make an entity worthy of moral consideration — most importantly the capacity to suffer — are present in the majority of animals we factory-farm and experiment on". Pethiyagoda described factory farming "as one of the greatest wrongs of the modern era". He called for more vegan options on college menus and an inquiry into animal testing at Oxford. His campaign was publicized by Animal-Law UK.
He has spoken on animal rights and international law, the topic of his second book. Pethiyagoda contends that the "unconscious ignoring of animals in International Human Rights Law, is in line with particular socio-cultural, political, religious norms of the states that dominated the international order" at the time of international human rights law's foundational documents were formulated. At the 2022 Labour Party Conference, he spoke as the Delegate for Kensington calling for strengthening of animal welfare requirements in trade agreements, giving sentience act real teeth and "expanding the circle of compassion". Pethiyagoda publicly endorsed the Plant-Based Treaty.
Category:Australian people
Category:University of Oxford alumni
Category:People from Kandy
Category:Author
Category:Politicians