We are immensely fortunate to have the opportunity of welcoming Dame Karen Pierce as our speaker for the return of the James Bryce Memorial Lecture.
Dame Karen Pierce has garnered a number of firsts in the course of her stellar diplomatic career. She currently serves as the first female special envoy to the Western Balkans, where she manages the UK’s strategic objectives in this sensitive region. She is also the first woman to have served as UK ambassador to the US, a posting widely held to be the most prestigious in the British diplomatic service.
Dame Karen’s tenure as ambassador to the US ran from 2020-24, during which time she represented UK interests under both the Trump and Biden administrations. She is widely held to have been a roaring success in DC: a thoroughly good egg who improved relations between Starmer and Trump and advocated for UK business and cultural interests, all while retaining her penchant for brightly coloured suits and glittering headbands.
At the Bryce Lecture 2026, Dame Karen will give a talk entitled “A British Diplomat Across Her Career”. The lecture will see her consider the similarities, and differences, between herself and Sir James Bryce, the Liberal politician and jurist who also served as British ambassador to the US (1907-1913), and for whom this lecture is named.
The Bryce Lecture commemorates the legacy of the British academic, jurist, historian, and Liberal politician James Bryce, First Viscount Bryce (1838-1922). Bryce had strong connections to Oxford, having been a fellow of Oriel and serving as Regius Professor of Civil Law from 1870-93. He also shares the distinction with Dame Karen of having served as ambassador to the United States, and his tenure from 1907-1913 is acclaimed for having strengthened the ties and friendship between the two nations.
Dame Karen Pierce. Prior to arriving in Washington, Karen Pierce was the United Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (2018-20). Before that, Karen held multiple, multilateral roles within the FCO, including Director of South Asia and Afghanistan Unit and Director General for Political Affairs. From 2015-16, she was the UK’s Ambassador to Afghanistan.