Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

5th March 2013 Ottawa, Canada

Women in Science – roundtable recap video!

As you may remember, on January 24th, 2013, the Montreal Consulate General (@UKinCanada and @BritsAuCanada), in collaboration with McGill (@McGillU), the Royal Society (@royalsociety) and the Royal Society of Canada (@RSCTheAcademies), hosted a round table on women in Science. Well, the Footage is in and edited and now we can offer you a quick video recap of our Women in Science event: […]

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5th March 2013 Warsaw, Poland

Martin Oxley, Head, UKTI Poland

by Martin Oxley

Director of UKTI Warsaw

Leading Teams to Deliver Business Excellence

An inspirational speech by HMA Robin Barnett kicked of the recent UKTI Leadership training in Warsaw, part of a two city roadshow from Berlin to Warsaw attracting participation from Heads of UKTI in Europe and the Corporate UKTI training team. The intensive training session is part of UKTIs ongoing change programme to promote UK growth […]

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4th March 2013 British High Commission, Kingston, Jamaica

by Syranno Baines

Digital and Communications Officer

Women in the Foreign Office: Heather Cowley

In the lead up to International Women’s Day, we are featuring the stories of women who work with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Meet Heather Cowley – she’s a Rapid Deployment Team and Cryptographic Support Officer who provides invaluable technical expertise to keep our FCO IT systems secure and enable our diplomats to keep in […]

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4th March 2013

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by Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

Religion and Secularism in a Global Age

Benedict XVI has stepped down. We await the election of his successor. But life and business at the Holy See, at least for this Embassy, go on – almost as usual. On 1 March, St David’s day, I attended and chaired the afternoon session of a one day conference organised by the Tony Blair Faith […]

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4th March 2013 Geneva, Switzerland

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by Bob Last

Head, UK Mission Political and Human Rights Team

Powerful Women

It’s not often that you go to an event at the UN and end up staying much longer than intended. Usually it’s the other way round. But this week’s high level panel on the ‘power of empowered women’ was one of the best UN discussions I’ve seen and a fitting prelude to international women’s day […]

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4th March 2013

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by Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

My TV interview: social media, freedom of speech and football

I was privileged at the weekend to be interviewed on Kanal 24 by well-known Turkish journalist Özay Şendir (in Turkish). We covered lots of topics including use of social media, Cappadocia, trade and investment, freedom of expression and, inevitably, football (my Istanbul team, by the way, is Kasımpaşa). http://youtu.be/Th9Lk78tdjo

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3rd March 2013

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by Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

Avalon: From Excalibur to Aerospace Defence Sales

Avalon is not just the title of a 1980s Roxy Music album. It’s also an airport in Melbourne which hosts an important aerospace and defence show every two years. That’s quite fitting really as, in Arthurian legend, Avalon is the mythical place where King Arthur’s sword Excalibur was forged, so the name has a longstanding […]

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1st March 2013 Washington DC, USA

by Peter Westmacott

Former Ambassador to the United States of America

Science that helps keep us safe

On Wednesday evening we gave a reception at the British Embassy for scientists, soldiers and senior government officials from the US and the UK. The event was organised around a workshop presided by Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman of King’s College, London and Professor Eli Berman of UC San Diego, with the support of Research Councils […]

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