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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Austria

7th October 2016 Vienna, Austria

Give peace a chance

I’m sitting around a table with numerous Ambassadors discussing nuclear security.

But we’re not at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  We’re at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP).

And instead of sitting in one of the huge semi-circular conference chambers of the Vienna International Centre, we’re on the thirteenth floor of the interestingly-named Andromeda Tower – a modern office building.

Hazel Richardson

One of the things that has struck me about starting work in Vienna has been the many highly regarded NGOs which are engaged on issues around peace and security. A few days after the VCDNP event I attended the “International Day of Peace”, this time in the Vienna International Centre, organised by the Universal Peace Federation and the Academic Council on the United Nations System.  I was there to welcome Hazel Richardson, a witness of the Second World War who lived through the bombing of London.  She was one of several witnesses to conflict who gave testimony to highlight the horrors of war.

Multilateral diplomacy is not famous for producing quick results. But it is the best method anyone has yet developed to make the world a safer place – including preventing military conflict.  The IAEA, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) and other Vienna-based organisations are an important part of the international infrastructure set up to maximise international peace and stability.

I look forward to continuing the UK’s efforts to contribute to that process over the months and years ahead.

1 comment on “Give peace a chance”

  1. True, nuclear deterrents are contentious. It is equally contentious to allow existing nuclear states to keep their deterrents whilst trying to persuade non nuclear states to not get nuclear deterrents.

    The easiest answers are the most difficult ones.

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About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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