Claire Yorke
Current Employer/Organisation Name
Deakin University
What have you been doing since leaving Exeter, and what are you doing now?
I studied an MA in Middle East Politics with Arabic at Exeter, and shortly after I left in 2006 I began an internship in the Houses of Parliament, in London. After a few months there I gained a full-time job working for a front-bench politician on the defence and foreign affairs portfolio, and managing their Westminster Office. I worked there for three years and left in 2009 to join Chatham House where I was the Programme Manager for the International Security Research Department. I loved that role but wanted to be able to go deeper on some of the topics that had come up during my experience, and so began a PhD in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London in 2013. My research focused on the role and limitations of empathy in international diplomacy and politics, and really set the foundations for my current work.
After I completed my doctoral studies 2018, I spent two years at Yale University as a Henry A. Kissinger Postdoctoral Fellow with the Jackson School, the Brady Johnson Center, and International Security Studies. When the pandemic hit I spent a year back in the UK, working on a book and doing some freelance work – including a fascinating history of the British Empire with a Professor from Yale. In 2021, I moved to Denmark as I was awarded a Marie SkĊowdowska-Curie Fellowship to lead a project I had designed on Empathy and International Security at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. Then, in 2024 I moved to Australia to take up my current role as a Senior Lecturer at Deakin University, where I am the Convenor of the Senior Masters Course and teach senior military professionals and public servants about the intersection of empathy, strategy, politics, diplomacy, and geopolitics.
I recently published my first general readership book on ‘Empathy in Politics and Leadership’ with Yale University Press, and now feeling inspired I would love to continue writing.
Why did you choose this career? And what do you enjoy most about your work?
I wanted a career that would give me a more international perspective on the contemporary challenges we face today. I have always loved foreign affairs and international relations, as I began university life as a language student with ambitions of living overseas. My career has kind of emerged from different opportunities that have presented themselves, rather than being proactively designed, and I love that it has taken me in directions and to countries I never would have expected. I really enjoy my work and love to teach, and it is especially rewarding to be able to work with such diverse, experienced, and engaged groups of people as I have in every role I have had. I get to travel a lot and see the world through different eyes, and really gain a richer understanding of the problems we are facing and what is being done by people across society to transform them and make a different. I also really enjoy that I get to write and try and make sense of what I learn and experience; it has been a dream of mine since I was 4 so it is so rewarding to be able to do that now.
What did you enjoy most about your programme and what was the biggest highlight?
I met some lifelong friends on the programme, and had such an amazing time as a student. I also discovered a part of the world that I was really curious about but didn’t understand well. During my time at Exeter I took my first trip to the Middle East with some of my friends from the course and it was a real highlight. I had the opportunity there to also do some research assistance for Professor Mick Dumper and his book and that gave me the taste of what a PhD could be.
What did you most enjoy about studying here?
The environment was rewarding and academically challenging, I loved learning Arabic and we had a great cohort of friends that would all study together.
Why did you choose to study at Exeter?
It had a brilliant reputation for international relations and Middle East studies and it is in a beautiful part of the world.
What skills and experiences have been most useful for your career?
My degree helped me to enter politics and to gain a deeper understanding of international relations, especially of a region that has been so critical to international politics. It gave me an appreciation of the nuance and complexity of contemporary politics and the importance of looking at which stories are not being told and finding ways to access them. I learned a lot about academic writing, research, and gained confidence in my abilities to tackle hard topics.
What advice would you give to a current student who wishes to pursue your career?
Follow your passion and your curiosity. Try to live overseas if you can, and learn a new language or expand your worldview. You do not need to get to the dream career in one go, try and find stepping stones that enable you to develop key skills and experience. Learn as much as you can, be a team player, and cultivate genuine friendships and collaborations as it is the people you meet along the way who make it so rewarding and sustain you when challenges inevitably arise.
What are your plans for the future?
I will be teaching in Australia for the foreseeable future, and I plan to write more books and to contribute to meaningful conversations about how we create genuine and sustainable change in our politics, our societies, and in international relations.
