Joining our meeting in the midst of a jam-packed schedule and frequent flights, Vuk Jeremić greets me warmly. His courteous demeanour alludes to a level of contentment with his hectic day that is by no means surprising for a man once heralded as one of the world’s most frequent flyers, as Serbian foreign minister (2007-2012) and President of the UN General Assembly (2012-2013).

Eager to speak about his time at Cambridge, Jeremić tells me passionately about the beginnings of his academic journey at the university almost thirty years ago. In the midst of reflections upon his schoolboy days, he agrees now that “the world was quite a different place,” drawing attention to the widespread optimism surrounding international relations in the West during the 1990s.

Yet, as a Serbian in the 1990s, Jeremić had a somewhat more unusual first-hand relationship with these concepts of international relations. Telling me how he was just one of a few students from former Yugoslavia studying in the city at the time, he explains that he was “not sure that everybody understood” the conflict in the Balkans. He informs me that the period was “very traumatic,” as his personal experience was made more complicated by his mixed heritage, with his mother hailing from Bosnia and his father from Serbia.

“I decided that I cannot sit still, and that I had to do something”

Discussing the Yugoslav community that developed amongst students at this time, Jeremić explains how he became the President of Yugoslav Society at Cambridge when most “were not under the impression that in a few years that Yugoslavia would just be no more, and probably never again so.” As a Serbian specifically, Jeremić recalls particular discrimination he faced on account of his nationality. “It wasn’t easy” at times for the young Serb, who recalls how on many occasions his peers would fall silent when he entered the room or that there were “difficult questions being asked”. He contrasts this experience with his later duration at Harvard between 2001 and 2003 when Serbia was “judged to be on the right side of history” and hence such discrimination was absent.

However, to Jeremić the more difficult aspects of his experience living in Cambridge were “simply not to be compared to the year 1999”. Studying for a doctorate in applied math at Imperial College London when the 78 day bombing campaign of Yugoslavia began, Jeremić recalls how the episode did “really change his life”. It was these deep feelings that motivated the young man to return home. Emphatically, he tells me “I decided that I cannot sit still, and that I had to do something”.

Jeremić’s entrance to politics was within his decision to help found the student movement Otpor! , which came to play a large role in the toppling of the existing regime under Milošević. Otpor! “started off as a group of maybe dozens of students, and then it grew into a movement that was hundreds of thousands in numbers”, being able to place pressure for a change of government. He informs me that this involvement meant that “one thing led to another” and that when this new government formed he was invited to be a part of it.

By 2007, Jeremić broke records by becoming the youngest Foreign Minister in the world at the age of 32. The reality, he says, was “less fancy than the way it works on the outside”. 2007 was a difficult time to be a Serbian foreign minister, as Kosovo’s expected Declaration of Independence meant that “nobody in Serbia really wanted the job”. Nevertheless, Jeremić was appointed to the role, and despite his belief that he would likely “burn out” in the position, his political career remained intact. Largely, Jeremić attributes this result to the “deep convictions” of both himself and the Serbian people, and passion with which he approached the mission, spending over 700 hours of 2009 in flight.

“Unless there is a consensus, things can’t be moved in a positive direction”

Reflecting upon this jet-setting, Jeremić concedes that there were things he would have done differently in his career with the benefit of hindsight. Whilst he was Foreign Minister, he considered personal relations to be “eighty to ninety percent” of diplomacy, but has since changed his mind, seeing that “there are also geostrategic and historical forces in play, which you can ignore only at your own peril.” It is this introspection that has allowed Jeremić to come to the humble conclusion that he “would have done a better job had [he had] this kind of understanding, but that applies to most things in life. If you were to be given a second chance, you’d probably do things better.”

This analytical perspective extends to his review of his tenure as President of the UN General Assembly between 2012 and 2013. Reflecting on the successes of the Assembly, Jeremić is proud to tell me of his role chairing discussions for the Sustainable Development Goals (environmental objectives that nations agree to in order to limit climate change). This was a task he likened to “herding 193 squirrels” with the UN member states originating from “different parts of the world, different types of governance, different cultures, experiences, and priorities.”

Eventually, such work would contribute to the signing of the 2015 Paris Climate Treaty, a momentous event that allows Jeremić to consider 2015 as “the golden year”. The Assembly is also remembered for the adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty, which placed restrictions on international trade in weapons, as well as the granting of Palestine’s non-member status. It is this latter contribution that Jeremić is now more critical of, as he tells me “you can’t put Palestine in the same bunch with the rest” when you consider the war raging on today. The issue with this, Jeremić argues, was that the vote on member status did not do enough to develop a consensus, believing that “unless there is a consensus, things can’t be moved in a positive direction”.

It comes as no surprise then that the former diplomat remains a staunch advocate of diplomatic resolution. Particularly, learning how close Yugoslavia came to “a solution that would have completely pre-empted the catastrophe” of 1999 has instilled in Jeremić a conviction to peace. Jeremić also argues that such institutions must adapt in response to changing international circumstances, in light of how organisations such as the UN have been unable to influence the fact that “the world is very clearly going in the wrong direction,” . Indeed, with the election of Trump in recent weeks it seems reasonable to expect that there will be changes to international politics and, as Jeremić suggests, that “maybe things are going to happen in a very different way”.