8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
17th October 2024
OSLOBOĐENJE BEOGRADA
11th October 2024
Busting the gender myths – women and organised crime
21st August 2020
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
PRIDE (In the Name of Love)
Last September, I counted myself lucky to join hundreds of others in the first ever PRIDE march in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite security concerns beforehand, it was a happy and joyful event, a celebration showing that this country is a home and open to all. This year there will be no physical event – a […]
17th August 2020 Stockholm, Sweden
The European Energy Transition
Over the last year, the UK government’s international Science and Innovation Network has been collaborating with UK Research & Innovation and the Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) to produce a market study to identify some of the key European countries that are seeing significant changes in their domestic energy system as a result of the energy […]
17th August 2020 Tokyo, Japan
William Adams: the first Briton in Japan
If you have ever seen the 1980s TV mini-series “Shogun” you will be familiar with the story of William Adams, the “first Englishman in Japan”. It’s a fascinating tale. Shipwrecked in Japan in 1600, ship’s pilot Adams quickly won the confidence of the warlord Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, advising him on many aspects of international affairs, shipbuilding and navigation. He was to stay […]
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11th August 2020 Vienna, Austria
Good news for students in Austria and the UK
The UK education sector is one of the most popular destinations for international – EU and non-EU – students to study abroad. Worldwide, only the US attracts larger numbers. Academics like working in the UK, too: in 2017-18, 20% of staff working at UK higher education institutions were international, with almost 60% of that 20% […]
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5th August 2020 Vienna, Austria
COVID-19 vaccine developed in Austria – produced in Scotland
“When we started to develop our vaccine candidate we needed to push; now there is a massive pull from governments around the world,” says Thomas Lingelbach, CEO of Vienna-based pharmaceutical company Valneva, during my visit to his HQ at the Vienna Bio Center. Work is intense at Valneva when we visit. The Austro-French vaccine company […]
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30th July 2020 Geneva, Switzerland
Councils Completed
These are such strange days. We still don’t know if this will prove to be a painful but relatively short-lived episode of global distress or if we’re in this for the much longer haul. Will we look back on this as a defining moment of international cooperation to overcome one of the greatest health challenges […]
25th July 2020
Painting Her Majesty
Image ©Aliona Adrianova During my first meeting with Foreign Office Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Simon McDonald in March 2019, when we discussed ideas for the portrait of The Queen that he wanted to commission, I was delighted to hear that he wanted it to feel intimate. He wanted to express Her Majesty’s humanity, rather than creating […]
7th July 2020 Geneva, Switzerland
Disarmament blog: what’s the point of the Conference on Disarmament?
The Conference on Disarmament resumed its 2020 session on Tuesday, after a break of 122 days. (We had been supposed to meet a week earlier, but technical problems with the new remote participation platform meant the meeting was cancelled at the eleventh hour.) But did anyone miss the CD while it was silent? Should it […]
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7th July 2020 Geneva, Switzerland
Blog: Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention goes virtual
It was with some trepidation that I turned up at the offices of the Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) for the Opening Session of the first ever virtual intersessional meetings of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Would the new platform, with its interpretation into the UN official languages, actually work? Would there be endless […]
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7th July 2020 Skopje, North Macedonia
Despite all the obstacles the fight for LGBTI equality continues
Last year, a Pride Parade took place in Skopje for the first time. The Parade was a protest and shall remain so until LGBTI people are able to enjoy all human rights and society is fully liberated. However, last year there were several reasons to celebrate. The Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination was […]
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