17th July 2025
Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
15th July 2025
International Day of Women in Diplomacy: UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls visit to Geneva
1st May 2025
The UN Commission on the Status of Women: My first visit as UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls
28th February 2013 Islamabad, Pakistan
Exploring Faisalabad
Now, I’m not one who normally gets passionate about sport. I could have been certain that my first blog from Pakistan, where I recently arrived as the High Commission’s new Press Attaché, would not have been about sport. But, I am surprisingly doing just that. When I think of sport in Pakistan, cricket comes into […]
28th February 2013 London, UK
Digital diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa
I’ve been the Digital Communications Manager for the Middle East and North Africa for the last 21 months and today is my last day. I wanted to reflect on our many digital diplomacy successes from the region and share some of my personal highlights. I joined the team at the height of the Arab Spring […]
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28th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Doing Business in Sudan
Any Sudanese you talk to, whether in Government or on the streets, will tell you that the economy is one of the biggest problems facing the country: high inflation, especially in food items, big public deficit, no foreign currency, little investment. Of course even the strongest of economies would suffer after the kind of dislocation […]
27th February 2013 Washington DC, USA
A Science Initiation
The following is a guest blog by Roben McCabe, Executive Assistant, Global Issues Group at the British Embassy in Washington. As someone with a background in International Conflict Resolution, I was a bit unsure if my attendance at Last week’s American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) Annual Meeting would be too high level […]
27th February 2013 Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Looking for evidence in Central Asia
The following is a post by Will Schomburg, a member of DFID’s Graduate Scheme. It takes imagination to picture what ancient Panjakent once looked like. While it might now be little more than a sprawl of ruins in western Tajikistan, the city was once a thriving trading point along the Silk Route. Like famous Samarkand, just […]
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26th February 2013 Lima, Peru
The UK takes a big step towards equal marriage
The following is a guest post by Ben Rawlings, Prosperity Officer – British Embassy, Lima. Marriage is an important institution in the UK. The principles of long-term commitment and responsibility that underpin it are part of what binds society together. But marriage is not static; it has always been an evolving institution. In the 20th […]
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26th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Try, Try Again
Last week we celebrated Burns Night, the traditional gathering of the clans to commemorate the great Scottish poet who was born into a poor farming family, but is now the literary hero of a nation. He had to struggle to gain acceptance and appreciation and faced bankruptcy and failure many times. I was reminded of […]
26th February 2013 Yerevan, Armenia
Yerevan Metro Rehabilitation- older and better just like the London Tube
The following is a guest post by Erik Gyulazyan, Trade and Prosperity Adviser, British Embassy Yerevan. We all know that the older a wine gets the better it is. But for a vintage wine to meet our expectations it must be given constant attention down the years by highly-skilled experts. This year the London Underground […]
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26th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Great Hatred, Little Room
A guest blog by Peter Spoor, Head of Press and Projects Team at the British Embassy in Ankara, Turkey On a recent visit to Diyarbakir in Turkey’s south east, I was struck by how much the violence and terrorism of the past thirty years has blighted the region’s development. Business leaders I met spoke of the […]
26th February 2013 Tripoli, Libya
Getting Started!
Welcome to my blog! I am hoping to share some personal reflections about this beguiling and complicated country very soon. Suffice it to say that I am preoccupied with the preparations for the Friends of Yemen meeting which takes place in London less than two weeks from now, on 7 March. Another way-marker on the […]