18th June 2015 Beirut, Lebanon
This week is the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. This was celebrated in the UK as the moment when the barons imposed on the monarch an agreement for greater liberties and rights, a milestone on the way to many of the freedoms we enjoy today. That journey reached a high point with the Universal […]
5th June 2015 Beirut, Lebanon
Last month, we launched the UK Lebanon Tech Hub. You can see a clip of a drone delivering my speech – for the first and last time, I can suggest that Enrique Iglesias take note. I normally try to write speeches while running. Jogging with bodyguards makes me look like the poor man’s slow Madonna, […]
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12th March 2015 Beirut, Lebanon
On the first anniversary of the Syria conflict, I wrote about the staggering impact it had already had – those numbers seem small now. On the second anniversary, I wrote about the generosity of Syria’s neighbours and parts of the international community, the frustrations of diplomacy, and the need to maintain a sense of rage. […]
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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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27th February 2015 Beirut, Lebanon
I spend a lot of time in universities, talking with students about their hopes for the region and their perceptions of the UK. Lebanon has always been a good place to listen to the currents surging through the Middle East. These sessions are always lively, surprising, challenging. It is foolish to try to generalise about […]
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25th September 2014 Beirut, Lebanon
For a week every year, the world’s foreign policy elites relocate to New York for the annual jamboree of statecraft, the UN General Assembly. The pace is frantic – diplomatic speed-dating. But it matters. The UN may not be perfect, but no-one has yet come up with a better idea for global coexistence. It matters […]
3rd September 2014 Beirut, Lebanon
With a formidable to-do list for the world’s leaders, the 2014 NATO Summit takes place in Wales on 4/5 September. This will be the largest ever gathering of international leaders in Britain. In preparation, some diplomats have even been learning Welsh (Matthew Barzun clip). Having been to a few, I’ve sometimes been sceptical about the […]
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7th March 2014 Beirut, Lebanon
In the 21st century we get angry about many small things: traffic jams, power cuts or a failed internet connection. We get plenty of opportunities for all three in Lebanon. But last Friday I joined an event about an issue worth getting really furious about. The Beirut Bar Association launched a Human Rights Institute booklet […]
17th January 2014 Beirut, Lebanon
One of the great frustrations of diplomacy is that results are hard to quantify. If, for example, a new government is at last formed in Lebanon, we will be hard pressed to say to what extent our encouragement, the hours on the road, in planes and in meetings, contributed. So when a project with direct, […]
19th June 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
The windy resort of Lough Erne in Northern Ireland this week must have felt far from the millions of Syrians whose lives have been ripped apart by conflict. Yet many of the G8 leaders meeting there have seen the human impact for themselves. Prime Minister David Cameron’s focus on stopping the war in Syria is […]
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