This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

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Edward Ferguson

British Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia

Part of UK in Bosnia and Herzegovina

23rd December 2014

Recharging the batteries

Today, I will be flying home to the UK for Christmas to join Caroline and the children, who are already there. It will be my first proper visit home since I arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in July, and I’m looking forward to catching up with family and friends.

Looking back through my diary, the variety of my first five months here has been incredible. The life of an Ambassador is a privileged one, primarily because of the range of people one gets to meet, and the different events in which one is invited to participate.

Some are uplifting. I am thinking particularly of our work with young people and children, often in partnership with the British Council, such as the Big Dance in September or our recent football tournament. This brought together children from 8 schools, from right across BiH, to commemorate the Christmas truce in 1914. Seeing young children from different communities and ethnic backgrounds meeting and competing in the finest spirit of the game was a wonderful experience, and I hope that we will have more such events in the New Year.

Some experiences are much more solemn. In September, I visited Srebrenica with one of the many groups of people involved in inter-community relations in the UK who are being funded by the British Government to visit BiH in order to learn the lessons from Europe’s post-war genocide. Talking with bereaved mothers and, afterwards, laying a wreath at the Potočari cemetery, was a profoundly moving experience. It drove home for me the importance of promoting reconciliation between all the communities of this country, and of working together for a more secure, stable and prosperous future, in which such events can never happen again.

And that is the focus of my team here at the Embassy. Politically, it has been a fascinating period. First, we had the elections. The pre-election campaign was depressing and divisive. But in the period immediately afterwards, there was a change of tone in some quarters, with the early coalition negotiations focusing on substantive reforms. It was in this context that we announced the UK/German initiative – now, I’m pleased to say, the new EU strategy – which we hope will provide the necessary incentives to underpin and accelerate the reforms across a broad political, economic and social agenda which this country desperately needs.

There are some grounds for optimism. Political leaders are all telling me that they recognise the public demands for change, and know that they have to respond. But at the same time, government formation is still moving too slowly. There is not yet enough concerted discussion between the parties about the substance of the reforms that will underpin the programme of government, and form the basis of the Written Commitment that we are seeking.

So I am planning to spend the next two weeks recharging the batteries after a busy start in post, and then returning to the charge early in the New Year – this time under EU leadership – to drive forward with the change agenda as urgently and as concretely as possible.

To all those who are celebrating, I wish you a very merry Christmas, and to everyone in BiH, a better 2015.

About Edward Ferguson

Edward Ferguson took over as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Serbia in July 2023. Before coming to Belgrade, Edward served as the Minister Counsellor Defence at the British Embassy in Washington…

Edward Ferguson took over as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Serbia in July 2023. Before coming to Belgrade, Edward served as the Minister Counsellor Defence at the British Embassy in Washington DC in September 2018. Together with the Defence Attaché, he led the British Defence Staff (United States), a network of 1,000 people spread across 28 States. As the UK’s senior policy adviser on defence relations with the United States, he was responsible for UK-US collaboration on strategic planning, nuclear policy and programmes, trade and acquisition, and science and technology. He was the US Network’s lead on HMG’s Integrated Review and AUKUS, and the senior champion for the Race, Ethnic and Cultural Heritage Group.

Previously, he served as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2014 to 2018, where he created and led a new international strategy, co-launched by the British and German Foreign Ministers, that re-energised Euro-Atlantic integration after years of stagnation while stimulating economic growth and reducing high levels of youth unemployment.

A former Exhibitioner and Choral Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, where he was also Treasurer of the Oxford Union, Edward graduated with First Class Honours in Classics in 2001. Joining the Graduate Fast Stream of the Ministry of Defence, he started out in the Naval Staff before joining the Iraq Secretariat during the build-up to and subsequent execution of Operation TELIC. In 2003, he was involved in financial and requirement scrutiny of the Department’s future helicopter procurement programme.

From 2004 to 2006, he managed a national award-winning £300-million programme to consolidate the MOD estate in Greater London and to redevelop RAF Northolt. In 2006, he volunteered for an operational tour, serving as Political Advisor to a British Battlegroup in Maysaan Province, Iraq (while his brother was a troop leader with the British Army in Basra). On his return, he took on responsibility for the strategic management of the UK’s bilateral defence relations with the United States, Canada and Western Europe.

From 2007 to 2009, he worked as Private Secretary to three Defence Secretaries, acting as their closest adviser on issues relating to operations in Iraq, the £6-billion defence equipment programme, science & technology, counter-terrorism and counter-piracy.

In 2009, he was appointed the Head of Afghanistan and Pakistan Policy, responsible for advice to the National Security Council on the policy, financial, legal, parliamentary and presentational aspects of the UK military contribution to operations in Afghanistan, and on the long-term defence role and interests in Pakistan.

From 2011 to 2014, he was Head of Defence Strategy and Priorities, leading two teams, one responsible for leading the MOD’s contribution to developing the 2015 National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defence and Security Review, and the other for prioritising the MOD’s international defence engagement activities. In 2013, he graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with an MSc with Distinction in Strategy and Diplomacy. He has been a member of the RCDS Strategic Advisory Panel, a member of the US Air Force Grand Strategy Advisory Board, and is a graduate of the PINNACLE Command and Staff course.

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