Member of India parliament to deliver keynote address at Commencement
The Fletcher School is pleased to announce that the Honorable Shashi Tharoor, FG78, will deliver the keynote address at the school’s 2026 Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 17.
Dr. Tharoor has spent his life shaping the course of international relations, championing diplomacy, and advancing critical conversations on the world stage. At present, he is a fourth-term Member of Parliament, representing the parliamentary constituency of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, in the Lok Sabha, India. He is also a member of the Indian National Congress (INC), where he has served as a Minister of State for External Affairs and Minister of State for Human Resource Development. Currently the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, he has previously chaired the Parliamentary Standing Committees on External Affairs (2014-19), Information Technology (2019-21), and Chemicals & Fertilizers (2021-24). At present, he is a full-time member of the Congress Working Committee, which is the highest decision-making body of the INC.
Before joining Indian politics, Tharoor had an accomplished 29-year career as a diplomat in the United Nations, including deputy chief of the UNHCR Secretariat (1985-89), special assistant for the U.S. and UN for Peacekeeping (1989-96), executive assistant to the Secretary General (1997-2000), and under-secretary-general for Communications and Public Information (2001-2007). In 2006, Tharoor was chosen as India’s official candidate for the post of secretary general and finished second out of seven candidates in the 2007 election.
Tharoor has served on the Board of Overseers of Fletcher, the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Institute, and the Advisory Boards of the Indo-American Arts Council, the American India Foundation, the World Policy Journal, the Virtue Foundation, and Breakthrough, a human rights organization. A prominent human rights advocate, Tharoor was appointed an international adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva (2008–2011). He was a fellow of the New York Institute of the Humanities, patron of the Dubai Modern School, and served on the Advisory Council of the Hague Institute for International Justice.
Tharoor is also an award-winning, internationally bestselling author of over 25 books, of both fiction and non-fiction. He has won several prestigious literary honors, including the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Sahitya Akademi Award—India’s second-highest literary prize.
Tharoor earned a PhD at Fletcher at the age of 22, becoming the youngest person at the time to have ever done so. While at Fletcher, he received the Robert B. Stewart Prize for Best Student and helped found—and served as the first editor of—The Fletcher Forum of International Affairs, a journal that is now in its 50th year.
Additionally, Tharoor received an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Puget Sound and a Doctorate Honoris Causa in History by the University of Bucharest. In 1998, the World Economic Forum named him a “Global Leader of Tomorrow.” A recipient of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India’s highest honor for overseas nationals, Tharoor was hailed by NDTV as the “New Age Politician of the Year” and has received the Hakim Khan Sur Award for National Integration, and the Priyadarshini Award for Excellence in Diplomacy. In 2012, the King of Spain bestowed on him the Encomienda de la Real Order Espanola de Carlos III—Spain’s highest civilian honor—and in 2022, the Government of France conferred on him their highest civilian honor, the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur. In February 2024, Tharoor was honored with the Lok Mat Best Parliamentarian of the Year Award (Lok Sabha).
As Fletcher prepares to celebrate the achievements of the graduating class, it is an honor to welcome our accomplished alumnus, Dr. Tharoor, to share his wisdom and insights from a lifetime of experience as a diplomat, politician, and author dedicated to making a global impact.