DIPLO Blog

Skip to content Leigh Turner Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna Part of UK in Austria 23rd October 2020 Vienna, Austria Diplomatic lessons 1: 1979-83 I’m delivering an online apprenticeship talk to staff in Vienna when someone asks me if I’ve thought of summarising everything I’ve learned in my 41-year career. ‘No,’ I say. They urge me to think again. So here is the first of several blogs seeking to distil a few lessons. Comments welcome. My first day in the civil service was 3 October 1979. I approached the doorman at No.2 Marsham Street, the long-since-demolished HQ of the since-much-reorganised Departments of the Environment and Transport (DOE), with foreboding. ‘You’ve come to the wrong building,’ the doorman said. ‘PMT is in Lambeth Bridge House.’ I trudged across Lambeth Bridge to a grim red 1940s office block – also since demolished – once described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsn..

Skip to content Dr Richard Smith FCDO Principal Historian Part of FCDO Historians UK at the UN 23rd October 2020 London, UK The Foreign Office and the creation of the UNPub quiz question: where was the first meeting of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly held? Answer: London, in the Methodist Central Hall on 10 January 1946. London features heavily in early UN history. The Security Council met for the first time in Church House, Westminster, the following week. Church House was also the location for the UN Preparatory Commission, which convened in the autumn of 1945 to decide the administrative framework for the new organisation. Foreign Office officials played a key role in planning and establishing the UN at the Dumbarton Oaks conference (August to October 1944), where the Big Four met to discuss setting up a new international body to replace the League of Nations. They played a similar role at the subsequent United Nations Conference on International Organization, which met in..

Skip to content Matt Field British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina 23rd October 2020 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina The UN at 75 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, around the three UN pillars of human rights, sustainable development and peace and security. Last month, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab spoke of the UN’s origins, and an inception “rooted in optimism and a determination that ‘we, the peoples’ would create a better future for ourselves and our children”. The United Kingdom is a firm friend and champion of the UN, and a leading supporter, through our budget contributions, as a permanent member of the Security Council, and as a country committed to spending 0.7% ..

Skip to content Sian MacLeod UK Ambassador to Serbia Part of UK in Serbia 23rd October 2020 Belgrade, Serbia Sir Mick Jagger and the Art of Negotiation Inside the Belgrade Arena, setting for the OSCE ministerial meeting in late 2014This week stories about negotiations have been prominent in the media both in the UK and in Serbia. The history of diplomacy might also be called the history of negotiation. Negotiating is a way of life for diplomats. Whether you are working on a major arms control treaty, opening a new diplomatic mission or drafting a statement to be delivered on behalf of several countries, you are likely to be using your negotiating skills. Every diplomat will begin a negotiation aiming to get everything that they want. But it would be a very rare negotiation indeed if everyone were to succeed in that aim. To quote Mick Jagger: you can’t always get what you want. So it is also important to know what you need. In other words, and although you may not always make this publ..

Skip to content Sian MacLeod UK Ambassador to Serbia Part of UK in Serbia 16th October 2020 Belgrade, Serbia Diplomatic Tours Temporary wartime British Legation (1914-1915) site in NišI arrived in Belgrade just over a year ago. But for over half of that time lives have been turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic. For any newly arrived diplomat, that means that many of those first twelve months when you would be out and about starting to get to know your host country have been spent at home, probably learning how to use online technology. For anxious months we have watched the coronavirus figures ebb and flow here as well as in our home countries. The current relative lull in the pandemic storm in Serbia has given Belgrade based diplomats the chance to venture out of the the city, with care and caution, to complete interrupted business and fulfil postponed promises to visit. It has been a bit like emerging from hibernation though without any certainty of how long the new freed..

Skip to content UK in Sri Lanka Part of Chevening Conversations UK in Sri Lanka 15th October 2020 Colombo, Sri Lanka From applicant, scholar to panellist: A nervous Chevening journeyNerves, nerves, and more nerves aptly describes my entire Chevening application experience. I was a bundle of nerves from the point of filling out the lengthy application online to that heart-racing moment I clicked open the acceptance email from the Chevening Secretariat. And this year – as I sat on the interview panel, grading the shortlisted candidates – I was reminded of how nerve-racking the whole experience was for me. With this in mind, I felt it would be helpful to list out some advice to the 2021 applicants. I hope this helps you navigate the unavoidable anxiety, and outhustle those nerves so you don’t miss out on a brilliant opportunity to not only obtain a Master’s degree but also be part of the incredible Chevening journey. The most basic yet crucial bit of advice I can share, is to not delay f..

Skip to content Aleksandra Cvetkovska Program Director, NDI North Macedonia Guest blogger for UK in North Macedonia Part of UK in North Macedonia 15th October 2020 Skopje, North Macedonia More Women in Politics is a Must In North Macedonia, we have fought the fight of gender equality since the country’s independence, and even though a lot has been accomplished, we are still far away from achieving full gender parity and equal opportunities. When I was asked, by the British Embassy, to write a blog post on women in politics, I welcomed it as the daily work and efforts of women politicians should always be promoted and praised. Women politicians have brought about many positive changes to other women and to society, in general, but I feel that they are not being talked about enough. Let’s start with a couple of words on women’s political participation in North Macedonia. At the moment, there are 38,3% women MPs in Parliament and 21% women ministers in Government. We have never had a wom..

Skip to content Pauline Trepczyk Climate Change Policy Officer, British Embassy Vienna Guest blogger for Leigh Turner Part of UK in Austria 15th October 2020 Vienna, Austria Debating: today’s most important skill? On 29 September the British Embassy Vienna invited young people from all over Austria to join a Debate Workshop. Youth from Salzburg, Upper and Lower Austria, Carinthia as well as Vienna came together, separated by appropriate “baby elephants” (Austria’s 1.5m rule) to practice their skills. Trainers from Debattierklub Vienna, Joy Edobor and Miri Muntean, introduced the participants to the world of debating, specifically the rules of British parliamentary debates. Nerys Jones, British Deputy Head of Mission and Guiseppe Abignente, Deputy Ambassador from the Italian Embassy Vienna, opened the workshop. Debating is a big part of British culture. Debating societies emerged in London as early as the 18th Century and have been a staple ever since. Topics ranged from current events..

Skip to content Matt Field British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina 14th October 2020 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Visible Women“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) The campaign for local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina is about to begin. While there are many things we do not yet know about how those elections will run, we can be confident that women – as candidates, as decision-makers, and as voters – will be all too invisible in the campaign. And when they are to be seen, they will be presented in a more negative way than their male counterparts, they will be marginalised, abused, and their views dismissed. We know this based on previous election campaigns in BiH, and the experience of women who participate in public or political life. When the Westminster Foundation for Democracy carried out its study of the experience of women in politics in BiH, it found consistent patterns of violence against them, including attacks, threa..

Skip to content Joelle Jenny Director, Joint Funds Unit 30th October 2020 London 20 years of Women, Peace and Security Today marks 20 years since the UK led the first ever UN Security Council Resolution on Women, Peace and Security. It’s an important moment to champion the crucial role women can play as actors and decision-makers at all levels in peace and political processes. Women’s participation in peace processes is essential. For reasons of equity and inclusivity of course, but also simply because peace agreements that were negotiated with the participation of women are more successful. They go deeper in addressing the wounds and trauma of war. They address the causes of the conflict, have transitional justice arrangements and consider the needs of the populations. They are more lasting, more enduring than the kinds of power arrangements that are negotiated when only the warring parties are at the table. In fact, when women meaningfully participate, the resulting agreement is 64%..