Gareth Evans AC QC was a Cabinet minister throughout the Hawke–Keating governments, including as foreign minister from 1988 to 1996. In his 21-year parliamentary career, he served as both leader of the government in the Senate and deputy leader of the Opposition. After leaving politics, he was president of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group from 2000 to 2009, and chancellor of the Australian National University from 2010 to 2019, where he is now Distinguished Honorary Professor. He co-chaired the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2001), which initiated the ‘responsibility to protect’ concept, and the Australia–Japan International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (2009). He has received a number of national and international awards, including the 2010 Roosevelt Institute Freedom from Fear prize for his pioneering work on mass atrocity crimes, conflict prevention and resolution, and arms control and disarmament, and he has written or edited thirteen books, most recently Incorrigible Optimist: A Political Memoir.