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
4th December 2020 Tokyo, Japan
Okinawa – Japan’s sub-tropical island chain
The Japanese archipelago stretches around 2,000 miles from north to south. The Ryukyu chain in the far southwest, which includes the Okinawa group of islands, is almost tropical. It used to be a separate kingdom, a key part of the trading routes with East and South East Asia. Many ancient fortified palaces from that period remain. But […]
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27th November 2020 Belgrade, Serbia
Bad Air Days and Silver Linings
The global skies have been pretty dark metaphorically over past months. They have been pretty gloomy too here literally for much of the time. I’m lucky enough to look out of my window in Belgrade at trees and sky. Sadly though that view is often rather murky, with visibility limited to the great oak trees at the end of my […]
25th November 2020 Vienna, Austria
Diplomatic lessons 2, 1983-87: languages change everything
I was working in the personnel departments of the FCO[1] when Judith Macgregor[2], head of my section, put her head around the door and beckoned. An officer named John Everard[2] had resigned from his post as second secretary (political) and press officer at the British Embassy in Vienna, she said. They needed a German speaker, […]
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24th November 2020 Vienna, Austria
Embassy Q&A for UK nationals in Austria – Thursday 26 November 2020
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK PART IN THIS Q&A. We have now responded to your comments here and on facebook. You can find a document with all of the questions and answers here. The British Embassy Vienna is running an online Q&A session on our embassy facebook page on Thursday 26 November. At midday on […]
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23rd November 2020 Dublin, Ireland
UK Transition Period: A message for British Citizens living in Ireland
The Transition Period following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU ends on 31 December 2020. The UK and Irish governments both want to make sure any changes impact on you as little as possible. But there will be certain changes for which it is important to be prepared. Therefore, as we approach the end of […]
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19th November 2020 Skopje, North Macedonia
World Children’s Day-The Challenges of Children in the Past and the Children of Today
February 2010, Palais Wilson, Geneva I clearly remember the excitement of strolling in Palais Wilson in Geneva, where me and Elena – two seventeen-year-old girls, were about to meet the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. This UN body is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the […]
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19th November 2020
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A floor not a ceiling
Dayton. The very name evokes both peace and division. This 21 November marks the 25th anniversary of the accord secured in Dayton, Ohio, and then signed on 14 December in Paris. How do we mark this moment? The agreement reached on that distant air-force base has had a profound impact on the shaping of Bosnia […]
18th November 2020 Dublin, Ireland
UK: Climate Ambitions and Action
The UK and Ireland both have ambitious climate plans, we both want to be carbon neutral by 2050 and invest in our economies to build back better from COVID-19. As part of the UK’s drive to mobilise climate ambition in the year to COP26, the Prime Minister today announced our plans to promote a Green […]
17th November 2020 Canberra, Australia
Creating our future: #TogetherForOurPlanet
In November 2021 the UK is hosting the next major UN Climate Conference – known as COP26. Glasgow, the UK’s most sustainable city, will play host to what has been called “the Olympics of international diplomacy” as thousands of representatives from every country arrive to discuss the challenge of tackling climate change. While the entertainment […]
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13th November 2020 Belgrade, Serbia
Time Like an Ever Rolling Stream
This has been a solemn week in what has been a desperately sad month in a desperately sad year. On 11 November the UK like many other countries commemorates Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day, which originally marked the guns falling silent at the end of the First World War. Every country has its own way […]