20th September 2019
Beirut, Lebanon
This time last year was one of the highlights of my career – presenting Queen Elizabeth’s letter to President Aoun that nominated me as Ambassador. The anniversary has allowed reflection on the year: for Lebanon, and for the UK. My first 12 months in Lebanon has been remarkable. Rolls Royce and MEA signed our largest […]
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18th July 2019
Madrid
A few weeks ago I spoke to some FCO new entrants about social media and diplomacy. They were quite an intimidating audience not least since I assumed that most of them had already forgotten more about social media than I would ever learn. I explained how digital diplomacy had been perhaps the area of my […]
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1st August 2016
Holy See
“There can be only one” – not only the tag-line from the “Highlander” movies, but also the rules about Ambassadors accredited to each State. There can only be one official Ambassador in a country at a time. So there is always a gap between one leaving and the next arriving – which is another opportunity […]
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27th May 2016
Hanoi, Vietnam
Last week I was fortunate enough to enjoy an amazing adventure, joining a group of fellow ambassadors on a five-day expedition to the world’s largest cave, Son Doong in Quang Binh province’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park. (Although the trip was organised by the Vietnamese government, let me assure readers that I took the time […]
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26th February 2016
London, England
It is pretty rare these days for a British Ambassador or equivalent not to engage in social media – something that sets us apart from the vast majority of other countries’ emissaries (with notable exceptions). But at a time when diplomacy has progressively less to do with government to government (G2G) interaction and more to […]
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18th August 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Four years after arriving here, I leave Stockholm at the end of this week for a new posting at the UK delegation to NATO in Brussels. I’m looking forward to the new job and new city. But it will be hard to leave Stockholm, and I will carry with me many memories of this wonderful […]
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11th May 2015
Geneva, Switzerland
Grahame Greene’s novel about Geneva ignores it, focusing instead on the nasty foibles of the very rich. And if they mention it at all, modern novelists writing about Geneva use the UN at best as a backdrop for international intrigue but more often as a metaphor for international impotence. For someone preparing to take up […]
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8th March 2015
Beirut, Lebanon
As we mark International Women’s Day, discrimination and violence against women and girls remain all too present. In Lebanon we continue to lobby for better political representation for women, and to challenge inequality, an issue worth being undiplomatic about. I want to share with you guest blogposts by two great Lebanese women who have inspired […]
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3rd September 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
On Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September the UK will host the NATO Summit in Newport, Wales. It will be the largest gathering of international leaders ever to take place in Britain. It will also be the first UK-hosted NATO Summit since the London meeting in 1990, which marked the end of the Cold War. […]
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11th March 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The so called ‘Higgs Boson,’ for which British Professor Peter Higgs won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics, was only proved in 2012 at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland. CERN is a fantastic example of what we can do when we come together in the spirit of scientific endeavour. As facilities and instruments become more […]
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