3rd December 2024
RENEWING OLD TIES: THE NEW BISHOP OF LONDON
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
25th November 2024
The climate crisis and gender-based violence
8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
19th September 2016 Holy See
Starting at the Holy See
May I introduce myself? I am Sally Axworthy, the new British Ambassador to the Holy See. I presented my credentials to Pope Francis on 19 September. Over the coming four years, I hope to blog regularly to give an insight into the work of this Embassy I come to Rome having just spent six months learning […]
19th September 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Uniting the United Nations
Every year leaders gather in New York for the world’s only truly global summit: the ministerial week of the General Assembly of the United Nations. UNGA week is a whirlwind of set-piece speeches, side events, motorcades, tirades, and diplomacy. Some of the great moments in international politics have taken place against the gilded backdrop of […]
19th September 2016 London, UK
Irregular migration: a global response to a global issue
Irregular migration is one of the biggest challenges facing the international community. Large movements of people, on a scale not seen since the Second World War in Europe, have been making headlines since last summer – more than one million refugees and migrants arrived in the EU in 2015, risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean. […]
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16th September 2016 San Francisco, USA
Funding: Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases
Attention researchers interested in the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases. The UK’s BBSRC, in collaboration with National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announces a call for collaborative projects involving researchers from the US and UK under the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases programme (EEID). […]
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16th September 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the first of the arctic convoys in Russia
31 August 2016 marked the 75th anniversary of the first of what would become known as the Arctic Convoys, which delivered essential supplies to the Soviet Union during World War Two. The first convoy, codenamed ‘Dervish’, left Liverpool on 12 August 1941 and finally arrived in Arkhangelsk in north west Russia on 31 August. ‘Dervish’ […]
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16th September 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The International Day of Democracy celebrated in Romania
Following a United Nations General Assembly resolution in 2007, the International Day of Democracy is commemorated on 15 September each year. The day provides an opportunity to think about democracy, what it offers, and the consequences for those people who do not live in democratic societies. The British government believes that democracy is the form […]
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16th September 2016 Kolkata, India
Another country
It is a cracking first line for a novel: The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.* As a thought – that the past is somewhere different – the line sounds very appealing. The past is distant from us and we can’t access it immediately. But the idea is nonsense, of course, […]
16th September 2016 Canberra, Australia
The high and lows of fast-forward diplomacy
One of the great joys of being High Commissioner to Australia is the sheer variety of what I do. I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, to travel widely and frequently, and to deal with a diverse range of issues. It’s why I love the job. The last three weeks have been a slightly extreme example […]
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15th September 2016 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Protecting the space
Democracy is the best path to long term peace, stability and sustainable development. It doesn’t just mean elections, though they are important too. It’s about having a say in the decisions that affect us, independent institutions that function as they were intended to and rule of law that upholds our human rights and protects us […]
15th September 2016 Skopje, North Macedonia
Democracy is not a spectator sport
Today, 15 September, is International Day of Democracy – celebrated each year by the UN and its members. Why celebrate a system of government? What’s so special about democracy? I think the answer is simple. Democracy is the only system of Government that puts ordinary people at its centre. It ensures the people have a […]