He was born on 28 August 1947, in Brentwood, Essex, the son of Norman and Frances Cooper,[1] and educated at the Delamere School for Boys, Nairobi, Kenya, and Worcester College, Oxford.

He won a Thouron Award, and spent the academic year 1969–70 at the University of Pennsylvania, joining the Diplomatic Service of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1970.

After the Treaty of Lisbon's shake-up of EU foreign policy structures, and Solana's replacement by Catherine Ashton, Cooper sat on the steering committee which drew up the proposals for the new European External Action Service (EEAS).

[3] Subsequently he was released from the EEAS, but appointed as a Special Adviser to the Vice-President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton, primarily with regard to Myanmar, from April 2013 to March 2014.

[5] In March 2011, Cooper apparently came under fire for his support of Bahraini government crackdowns against protesters, waving off suggestions of police violence and saying "accidents happen.