7th September 2017
Abuja, Nigeria
I took up the Chevening portfolio in September 2015, a decision I have never regretted making. My passion for Chevening is so intense; I’m often asked if I’m an alumnus. Saddled with the task of administering and promoting this programme year-round in Nigeria, I find myself selling an opportunity that I know is absolutely priceless […]
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20th April 2017
Tripoli, Libya
Jon Worgan, 2nd Secretary Political, on how @UKinLibya built their 200k+ following and used twitter to cross borders and bridge political divides. Almost half of Libya’s young population use social media. It was a unifying force during Libya’s revolution, but is now more often a driver of division. Getting our digital comms right is hard […]
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30th March 2017
London, UK
Last year, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs brought together an interesting bunch of people from around the world, and me, to discuss digital diplomacy. I found myself speaking second on a panel. The first speaker announced the publication of the Digital Diplomacy Review 2016, ranking foreign ministries around the world. The United Kingdom was top. […]
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27th March 2017
London, UK
‘Blog first appeared on The State of Digital Diplomacy 2016‘ Alison Daniels & FCO Digital Team “Diplomacy is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip (103 characters).” The famous quote by Churchill is not just pithy aside it’s also an almost perfectly […]
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21st February 2017
London, UK
Many of us have had second-hand cars that take that long to get from 0 to 50! But add a “K” to the 50 and you have a description of the British Ambassador to Turkey, Richard Moore’s Twitter journey since he arrived in Turkey in January 2014. Richard was recently proclaimed by Turkey’s biggest selling […]
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16th February 2017
London, UK
(User research in project phases – courtesy of Leisa Reichelt) One of the first tasks I was given upon joining the Digital Transformation Unit within the Foreign Office was devising a strategy for user research. User research is at the heart of digitising government services. Everything we do should be designed with the user in […]
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6th February 2017
Skopje, North Macedonia
Like all British Ambassadors, I was encouraged (slight diplomatic euphemism) by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to get active on Twitter when I came to Skopje. TBH, as twitterati say, I had anyway been thinking of jumping in to the frenzied waters of social media. So I readily bought the FCO’s argument that it was […]
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1st February 2017
London, UK
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is always front and centre of the UK government’s response to an overseas crisis. They’re always high pressure events and lives are often on the line. Depending on the scale there’s a whole set of processes and teams that swing into action, all centred around our Crisis Management Department (CMD), […]
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19th January 2017
Austria, Vienna
A photographer is on his knees, stealthily taking pictures of Ambassador Leigh Turner from behind a Christmas tree. Another stands in the corner, facing the wall. Unnoticed by the other guests, she points her camera at the ceiling and triggers the shutter. Has the Ambassador’s residence in Vienna been infiltrated by foreign agents? Not quite. […]
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21st December 2016
London, UK
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office has 268 overseas missions operating in 168 counties and territories and is the voice of the UK government across the world. Take a look at some of the biggest priorities we’ve been working on this year. EU Referendum On June 23rd, the British people voted to leave the European Union. […]
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