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The climate crisis and gender-based violence
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Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
23rd December 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
Five Challenges for Lebanon in 2014
A year ago, I shared elements of my annual review of the year in Lebanon. One year on, we’re still running to stand still. I’ve learnt three rules about diplomacy here. Never think you can understand Lebanon. Never think you can predict Lebanon. Never think you can fix Lebanon. However, breaking at least one of these […]
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23rd December 2013 Budapest, Hungary
British Alumni for innovation and competitiveness in the V4 countries
Guest blog by Dr. Zoltán Csedő, Member of the Board, Hungarian Association of British Alumni. It was a great privilege to launch the www.britishalumni.org knowledge-sharing portal at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Wednesday 18 December. MFA Deputy State Secretary Gergely Prőhle hosted the launch event with British Ambassador Jonathan Knott. Ambassadors of the […]
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23rd December 2013 New Delhi, India
A Nobel week in New Delhi
The festive season has begun on a brilliant note with Dr Venki Ramakrishnan and Sir Paul Nurse, both UK based Nobel Laureates visiting Delhi last week. Dr Ramakrishnan delivered his public lecture on ‘Antibiotics and the Cell’s Protein Factory’ on Monday in AIIMS had a spell bound audience. The account of his lab’s work on […]
20th December 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
Internship is GREAT!
The British Diplomatic Mission has one of the highest number of interns among other missions in Brazil. The partnership with Brazilian higher education institutions started in 2006. Currently there are 36 interns working in our different posts across the country. This is one of the best internship programmes available in the field of International Relations, my area […]
20th December 2013 London, UK
Foreign Office Digital Strategy: one year on
One year ago this week we published the Foreign Office Digital Strategy, looking at how we would make the most of the opportunities of digital in our work. The Strategy set a clear vision – making use of digital tools in every element of foreign policy work; and moving to provide our services digitally by […]
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20th December 2013 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
A Year That Did Justice To The Bilateral Relationship
2012 was by any measure an extraordinary year with historic visits by the British Prime Minister and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I asked in my end of year blog whether we could maintain the same level of ambition in 2013. Looking back on this year, I can emphatically say that we have! Over […]
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19th December 2013 Vancouver, Canada
You Are The Cast
There are few events as exciting as the countdown to a rocket launch; and few contexts in which the words, “all systems normal” are as welcome…
19th December 2013 Washington DC, USA
Making all voices count online and “IRL”
In my lifetime, the rise of digital communications has changed nearly every aspect of our daily activities. And in foreign policy, the world is changing as a result of digital’s ability to give a voice to so many. We have seen social media play a huge role in regime change in the Arab world, we have […]
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18th December 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Ashes: the rivalry that unites us
So, Australia has won back the Ashes. I was always wary of hubris: I didn’t expect Australia to lightly concede a fourth series defeat in a row. But I don’t think many people anticipated England would perform quite so disappointingly, particularly with the bat. All credit to an Australian team who played outstandingly well. And […]
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18th December 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Christians in the Middle East: A Royal and Government Response
The Religious Freedom Project of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University organised an important conference in Rome last week on the theme of ‘Christianity and Freedom’. A number of distinguished British academics took part. One of the questions asked was what more are governments doing to stop religious persecution […]
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