2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
13th October 2025
UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls: September visits to Sarajevo and New York
14th April 2016 Colombo, Sri Lanka
CRISP : gathering the innovators of tomorrow
Congratulations to our two Sri Lankan Chevening CRISP fellows for 2016, Gayani Abeyasinghe and Balathasan Sayanthan, who are about to start their three month programme at the Saïd Business School in Oxford. This is the second year that Sri Lanka has been part of CRISP, a fellowship aimed at mid-career professionals from India and Sri […]
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14th April 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Shakespeare at the Vatican: family, mercy and a red hat
How could the British embassy to the Holy See contribute to the Shakespeare 400th anniversary this year? There is an extraordinary programme of official events organised under the Shakespeare Lives banner, but the Vatican was not an obvious element. And although the Royal Shakespeare Company had performed Shakespearean excerpts before Pope Paul VI in 1964, the […]
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14th April 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Visit to the Republic of Karelia, a Russian region full of rich culture and tourism opportunities
My latest regional visit in the North West Federal District of Russia took me to the city of Petrozavodsk in the Republic of Karelia. Petrozavodsk is 430 km north of St Petersburg. There is a good train connection between the cities. The Republic of Karelia is a beautiful part of Russia, full of forests, lakes […]
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13th April 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
#AdiosIstanbul 3: favourite longer walks – and happiness
How to be happy? Someone wrote that it’s all about (i) nature; (ii) other people; and (iii) exercise. That sounds about right to me. So what could make you happier than nature walking in a group? My recent blog #AdiosIstanbul 2 mentioned independent hiking group “Hiking Istanbul”. The aim of the slightly British-flavoured project is […]
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11th April 2016 San Francisco, USA
FUNDING: Digging into Data Challenge
A number of national government science funding agencies, including the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences are partnering in the Trans-Atlantic Platform 2016 Digging into Data Challenge (T-AP DiD). Digging into Data is a grant competition […]
11th April 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Congratulations Beşiktaş!
The new “Vodafone Arena” is magnificent. The location is world class. How did it happen? Since 2013 I have often walked past the site of magnificent new Beşiktaş stadium. I watched with fascination as the old stadium was demolished; a huge hole in the ground appeared; and the new stadium arose. Every month or two, […]
7th April 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Turks & Caicos and Bermuda: Shared Heritages and World Heritage
During a brief visit to Bermuda to meet my fellow Governors in the region I was fortunate to meet Dr Edward Harris MBE, the director of the superb National Museum of Bermuda. He explained some of the earliest links between our two countries, and at my request has kindly contributed the following piece about our […]
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7th April 2016 Khartoum
UK-Sudan strategic dialogue: “It’s good to talk”
For people in the UK, the catch phrase “It’s good to talk” conjures up memories of a rather persistent TV advertising campaign for telephone services, from one of our main telecom operators! It was one of those phrases that, during the 1990s, became synonymous with the simple act of picking up the phone and making […]
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7th April 2016 Mumbai, India
Design for infection control and prevention
Dr Teresa Inkster, Lead Infection Control Doctor with the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, UK recently visited Mumbai to explore UK-India collaborations in design for infection control and prevention. Through this guest blog, Dr Inkster shares her experience, thoughts, and possibilities. In March 2016, I travelled to Mumbai, India with two Infection Control colleagues from […]
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6th April 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Pope and Ukraine’s future
The Pope’s announcement at St Peter’s on 3 April that he is calling for a collection on behalf of the long suffering land and people of Ukraine was a significant gesture. On 24 April, all Catholic parishes in Europe will raise money for a country that since the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 […]