25th July 2024
Geneva, Switzerland
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Among my blessings in life is having an Irish mother-in law and I’m just back from a post-Council trip where my wife did some digging into her family history. A good number of her relatives were refugees fleeing persecution in both Eastern and Central Europe from the late 19th Century. Ireland was where they were […]
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16th October 2023
Geneva, Switzerland
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If anyone sensible was trying to design a system to get countries from across the world to reach agreement on tricky, highly sensitive issues, then they wouldn’t do it like this. First, call a very long meeting. Let’s say five weeks long. But make sure it comes hot on the heels of two other very […]
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1st December 2021
![Baroness Goldie and Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon with HMA Matt Field and DA LtCol Andrew Tait in Sarajevo](https://blogs.fcdo.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/WhatsApp-Image-2021-12-01-at-09.04.08-637x267.jpeg)
Joint message from Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, FCDO Minister of State and the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, and Baroness Goldie, MoD Minister of State for Defence Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) occupies a special place in the hearts and minds of the United Kingdom. As we have often heard in […]
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23rd October 2020
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
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Amongst many less pleasant events, 2020 also marks the much happier 75th year since the founding of the United Nations, and a series of commemorations is being held throughout the year. I congratulate UN Resident Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ingrid Macdonald, and all of the UN staff for their open-ended commitment to BiH’s citizens, […]
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8th October 2020
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About a year ago, I decided to quit my job in Sarajevo and move to London in order to pursue my second master’s in something called Psychology of Economic Life. Inevitably, as part of that decision, several others had to be made as well. Those included, but were not limited to, the decision to trade […]
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30th July 2020
Geneva, Switzerland
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These are such strange days. We still don’t know if this will prove to be a painful but relatively short-lived episode of global distress or if we’re in this for the much longer haul. Will we look back on this as a defining moment of international cooperation to overcome one of the greatest health challenges […]
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16th July 2019
King Charles Street, London
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Professor Graham Ball holds a chair in Bioinformatics at Nottingham Trent University and is Chief Scientific Officer at Intelligent OMICS Ltd, a company specialising in providing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions to molecular biomedical problems. He has developed Insilico methods for the analysis of omics data, facilitating the discovery of diagnostic biomarkers, the modelling […]
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12th June 2017
Geneva, Switzerland
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Growing up in Manchester, we used to say that if you couldn’t see the clouds approaching on the nearby Pennines it meant that it was already raining. I feel much the same way about sessions of the Human Rights Council – if there isn’t one around the corner, you’re probably already in one. The latest […]
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9th December 2016
Science and Innovation Network
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Once a year, the global scientific community is honoured and celebrated during the Nobel Prize Award ceremony in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Sweden has been the birthplace of some of the world’s leading researchers, including the Nobel Prize founder and inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel. Sweden also boasts some of the world’s leading research […]
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1st March 2016
Geneva, Switzerland
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Welcome back. I hope you’ve been having a good 2016. By this stage of the year most people’s well intentioned New Year’s resolutions have fallen by the wayside as the demands of winter force us towards the comforting embrace of familiar habits. I spend too much of my working life working on resolutions at the […]
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