Nic Hailey blogs from Afghanistan

Richard joined the British Embassy in Washington in October 2008 as Second Secretary, Afghanistan and Pakistan. His first nine months in Washington were actually spent working for the Office of Afghanistan Affairs at the State Department as part of an officer exchange programme. Before taking up his posting in Washington, Richard spent a year at the British Embassy in Kabul. In Kabul, Richard focused on internal Afghan politics, especially the preparations for the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2009 and 2010 respectively. While in Afghanistan, Richard had the chance to travel extensively, getting to provinces in the north, south, east, west and centre of the country, including spending several weeks in Helmand province. Richard also had the opportunity to return to Afghanistan in September 2010 to be an election monitor for the Parliamentary elections. During Richard’s career in the Foreign Office, he has also worked on counter terrorist financing and immigration policy.