25th April 2024
Reflect & Remember: Anzac Day 2024
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
23rd April 2024
Good English – A Key to Panama’s Future Success
21st March 2024
Forests in focus on International Day of Forests
19th June 2020
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Digital Transformation in the Public Sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina
In the time of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, virtual reality, big data, and many more are now transforming societies, economies, institutions and businesses across the globe. Governments worldwide are strategically leveraging new technologies to fundamentally improve policies, decision-making, public services and systems. Yet the full potential of digital government […]
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15th June 2020
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Cost of Youth Emigration
Long lines of people in front of foreign embassies in Sarajevo has become an all too common backdrop on our way to work. Migration is a fact of modern life, with both positive and negative elements. But there is something especially worrying about seeing so many young people in these lines, often accompanied by family […]
11th June 2020 Geneva, Switzerland
Disarmament blog: Disarmament and the Pandemic
I last blogged in late February on the P5 Conference in London, looking ahead to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in April. The coronavirus outbreak in China was on our minds, of course, but none of us knew then how it would affect the rest of the world. Switzerland reported its first death from […]
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7th June 2020 Stockholm, Sweden
The Transboundary Risks of Climate Change
“The aggregation of national interest does not amount to the global interest of the planet” – Youssef Nassef, Director of Adaptation at the UNFCCC In line with the UK government’s climate diplomacy pillar around “Climate Change Has No Borders” as part of its presidency to the United Nations 26th Conference of the Parties, the UK […]
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7th June 2020 Maldives
Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean: Maldives & the Nekton Mission
Were it not for covid, for World Oceans Day this year I’d have been writing about early reports from the Nekton Mission’s First Descent in Maldives, following their exploration of sites around Addu Atoll, the Zero Degree Channel and Gnaviyani Atoll. This ambitious expedition to “the Midnight Zone” of the Indian Ocean (the least explored […]
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4th June 2020 Juba, South Sudan
When it comes to vaccines and access to healthcare we must think and act beyond COVID-19
Today the UK is hosting the Global Vaccine Summit to raise money and awareness for Gavi, the vaccine alliance. Gavi is key in the global and local COVID-19 response, supporting countries to invest in preparedness and response, working with global partners on a vaccine, and ensuring that when a vaccine is available, all countries can […]
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3rd June 2020 Vienna, Austria
Cycling in Vienna: diplomatic, healthy and green
The freshly oiled crank purrs like a sewing machine. The sun has come out from behind the clouds, casting a silverish gleam on the Danube. There is a mild breeze. Hundreds of people are cycling on Vienna’s 21 kilometre-long Danube island and I am one of them. To me this is pure happiness. Cycling is […]
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2nd June 2020 Dublin, Ireland
A week in the life of Robin Barnett
Many people have asked me how an Embassy can operate virtually. After all, diplomacy is something of a contact sport. The answer lies in a combination of good IT, a great team, lots of imagination and creativity, a network of contacts, a lot of hard work and, crucially, by recharging your mobile phone at every […]
30th May 2020 Maldives
Meeting Maldives
Before I came to Maldives, my non-resident predecessor told me that being the first resident UK Ambassador* to Maldives would provide a great opportunity to get out to islands that diplomats hadn’t reached in many a year. In my previous posting, in Seychelles, I’d been limited to a small number of affordable islands. So I […]
27th May 2020 Vienna, Austria
How “The adjoining house at the Lustig Prean Gasse” became the British Embassy
“The Ministry of Works may have ideas about office accommodation. I doubt whether it would be possible to extend the existing offices by building in the courtyard. Failing this, it might be possible to secure the adjoining house in the Lustig Prean Gasse (No.10), which is now divided into flats and which would be sufficiently […]
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