9th December 2025
Why We Need Data, Courage, and Community
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
5th December 2014 Sofia, Bulgaria
Around Bulgaria
by Selby Martin Selby Martin was Head of Chancery and Consul, a position later renamed as Deputy Head of Mission, at British Embassy Sofia in the early 1970s. Our main pastime was travelling round Bulgaria enjoying its magnificent scenery, the churches, monasteries and historic towns. I had taken fishing tackle with me and hoped to fish […]
5th December 2014 Singapore
The Importance of Web Science
In November we hosted a Distinguished Visitor Lecture by Dame Wendy Hall at the High Commissioner’s residence, Eden Hall. Anna Weston, a PhD student at the Web Science Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Southampton, kindly wrote a guest post about the event and the importance of web science: “From the beginning, Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s […]
4th December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Britain and the Holy See stand together in defence of justice
In his homily at our celebration at St Paul’s outside the Walls of the centenary of the restoration of official UK-Holy See diplomatic relations in 1914, The Cardinal Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, praised how the United Kingdom and the Holy See “have worked together for justice and peace” over many years. He also set […]
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4th December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/Dennis Deletant: ‘Revisiting the 1989 Romanian Revolution: Some Personal Reflections’ (chapter I)
‘The Romanian revolution was for me, my own personal revolution. It brought me – to use Andy Warhol’s expression – my ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ for it catapulted me and Romanian studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of the University of London, into the public eye. On 16 December 1989, I […]
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4th December 2014 Madrid, Spain
Talking about foreign policy with Master´s students
It was a real pleasure to welcome a group of Masters students from the Universidad Europea Madrid to the Embassy last week. With a number of my colleagues I was able to explain the work of the Embassy and Consulates across Spain. We discussed a range of foreign policy and global issues, before concluding with […]
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3rd December 2014 Singapore
6 Tips for Preparing Your Bid
A new member of staff recently asked me how the annual bidding round works and more importantly what makes a strong bid stand out. As I was talking through it I realised this was a blog post in the making. So I thought I would share with you six tips to increase the chances of […]
3rd December 2014 London, UK
What is civil society?
Last Friday I met members of the FCO’s “Youth Inspiration Group” – nine young people, between 18 and 25, from diverse backgrounds. With a combined network of over 3,000 (via the youth organisations and individual contacts they have) this group lends their time to the FCO, as a sounding board for our ideas. To help […]
3rd December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/Nigel Townson: ‘Remember, remember, that distant December’
‘I had already made the flight from Cluj to Bucharest on a number of occasions and it was rarely, if ever, a joyful occasion. The trip on 21st December 1989 was no exception as there was tension amongst the passengers, the airport staff and the flight crew. Even my Securitate-sponsored minder, technically a colleague in […]
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3rd December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Successful Australian UNSC Presidency in November
Australia has just completed its second period as UN Security Council Presidency, in November. It’s up to each member how much they want to make of their month of rotating Presidency. So it was good to see Australia being both ambitious and effective. It enabled strategic consideration of some important thematic issues, alongside dealing with […]
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2nd December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Turkey, the EU and NATO
I wrote a blog last year called “Why Turkey can be confident”. The point of that blog was to say that, given that Turkey was a large country with a trillion-dollar economy playing an influential role in world affairs, I couldn’t understand why some people argued that events inside Turkey were determined to a large […]