2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
13th October 2025
UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls: September visits to Sarajevo and New York
6th February 2019 Beirut, Lebanon
Celebrations, and Responsibility
The Embassy has been celebrating in recent weeks. There was a Wedding – on Saturday night a colleague married, the couple looked radiant, and the party was full of Lebanese life. We’ve had an award from Her Majesty The Queen, who at New Year recognised Lea Baroudi of MARCH for her inspiration in creating peace, […]
6th February 2019
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
More than a game
Sport has always played a big part in my personal life, as a young rugby player, a student field hockey player, and more than all as an armchair enthusiast. I am lucky that sport has also factored in my professional career, by managing to be in Japan for the 2002 World Cup, London for the […]
6th February 2019 Geneva, Switzerland
Disarmament blog: the P5 meet in Beijing
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) recognises five states as ‘Nuclear Weapon States’ – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. In 2009, the UK took the initiative to convene a conference of those States to discuss matters related to the NPT. This ‘P5’ process has since become an important channel […]
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5th February 2019 Skopje, North Macedonia
Open Data in Macedonia – towards a culture of openness
Macedonia is firmly set to use open data to continue its path towards more accountable and transparent state institutions. The current government has upgraded the already initiated process by not just committing to the Open Government Partnership, but also by drafting an Open Data Strategy with Action Plan, by adopting the International Open Data Charter […]
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5th February 2019 Vienna, Austria
Shadowing in the FCO: One week in Vienna
Guest blog by Amit Thapar, Senior Policy Advisor, Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) Last autumn I participated in the cross-Whitehall Senior Civil Service shadowing scheme for Grade 6/7 BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) civil servants, which allows for BAME staff at G6/7 to shadow a senior colleague in order to gain insight […]
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28th January 2019 Vienna, Austria
Bringing The Third Man home
I am fortunate to live in Vienna in a historic residence. In addition to being used constantly for events by our three missions in the city, the house also has several bedrooms which are used for visiting ministers and officials. When I arrived in Vienna, these bedrooms did not have names. So I ran a […]
23rd January 2019
The spy who saved 10,000 Jews
I have been lucky enough to meet two of my heroes. The first was Nicholas Winton. In the days of single TV households I often found myself watching a programme I didn’t particularly like; That’s Life was one of them. But it launched the career of Victoria Wood and occasionally featured interesting stories, so I […]
21st January 2019 London,UK
Marmalade
One of the more unusual invitations I have received of late came from Jane Hasell-McCosh, Founder of the “World’s Original Marmalade Awards”, to a reception last week at the Japanese Embassy to launch the 14th edition of the awards. It turned out that the awards have their spiritual, indeed physical, home in Dalemain Mansion, a […]
17th January 2019
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A New Start
Happy New Year, everyone. This is an exciting time of fresh beginnings, renewed energy and commitment to the challenges in front of us. I cannot say it was a full break from work, because sometimes a claim is so ridiculous that you have to respond – protests in Banja Luka were organised by the UK […]
16th January 2019 Geneva, Switzerland
Disarmament Blog: Disarmament In 2019
After a good break over Christmas and the New Year, I’m back in Geneva feeling refreshed for what will be a busy year in disarmament. Here’s a flavour of some the issues that will be on my mind in 2019. (I’ll look at some of them in more detail in future blog posts.) 2019 marks […]