DIPLO Blog

Skip to content Adnan Muminović Chevening Scholar Guest blogger for Matt Field 8th October 2020 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina When things appear too good to be true, they usually are. Except for when they are not… 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 a well-paying job for a life on a student budget; strong ties with people I love most in the world for what would, at least initially, be strangers; and my own comfortable place in Sarajevo for a flat share in London. In short, I had decided to trade the known for the unknown. Back in Sarajevo, reminiscing about the past twelve months and writing these lines, I ask myself whether it was worth it. Would I do it again? Oh, absolutely! And, honestly, so should you… For all those ..

Skip to content Sian MacLeod UK Ambassador to Serbia Part of UK in Serbia 2nd October 2020 Belgrade, Serbia Weather Reports Grey and windy in London; wet in Vienna; sunny in Skopje; ‘improbably sunny’ in Dublin; sultry in Lisbon… Online meetings of British Ambassadors often start with friendly chat that sounds a bit like a global weather forecast. After all, talking about the weather is something that British people are famous for. British diplomats are no exception. There is a good reason why we talk about the weather so much in the UK – it’s because, being a country with a long coast line and a small land mass, our weather is rather changeable and unpredictable. Diplomats take many habits with them when they go abroad – and for British diplomats talking about the weather is one of them. I think it’s rather an nice habit that helps us communicate with all sorts of people on uncontroversial ground. With our own colleagues around the UK’s diplomatic network it’s a nice way of reconnect..

Skip to content Rachel Galloway Her Majesty's Ambassador to North Macedonia Guest blogger for UK in North Macedonia Part of UK in North Macedonia 30th September 2020 Skopje, North Macedonia A hidden gem in the Pelagonia region Two years into my posting as British Ambassador to North Macedonia, September was my first month working for the recently merged Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the whole team coming back fully into the Embassy and adapting to the “new normal”. With my Embassy team, we have been working remotely and in groups from the office since the beginning of the pandemic. Even though the pandemic continues to leave its footprint on all of us, we must continue to build back stronger. It was in this mood, that we decided to, safely and carefully, restart visits to local cities in North Macedonia to build relationships, discuss and strengthen ongoing cooperation, find new opportunities for UK/North Macedonia to work together, and also see the landscape, sce..

Skip to content Paul Madden British Ambassador to Japan 29th September 2020 Tokyo, Japan Former British Consulate in YokohamaThe former British Consulate in Yokohama is a handsome stone building, reconstructed after the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923, just like the Embassy in Tokyo. Its location, amidst the downtown shops and offices of Japan’s second largest city, was once the bustling waterfront where East met West. Yokohama was one of several Treaty Ports, where foreigners were allowed to trade, when Japan reopened to the world after 230 years of isolation in 1854. As the nearest entry point to Tokyo, it was to become by far the most important of them. Nowadays the building houses the Yokohama Archives of History, with an impressive collection of documents relating to the Meiji period when Japan was opening up, rapidly modernising, and beginning its journey towards becoming one of the world’s largest economies. Curator Yoshizaki Masaki invited me to visit the archive to see some of..

Skip to content Sian MacLeod UK Ambassador to Serbia Part of UK in Serbia 25th September 2020 Belgrade, Serbia Windows on History The British and the Second World War in YugoslaviaThe Second World War finally came to an end just over 75 years ago. The memory of that war becomes more distant with each passing generation. This was the lived experience of my parents’ generation, experience and memories that our parents – or perhaps for some of you your grandparents – recounted to us as children, but which we can only now pass on second or third hand to our own children. Some of the most remarkable wartime memories and stories told by the British wartime generation concern the cooperation and events which happened in what was then Yugoslavia. They are memories and stories of a remarkable history of struggle, bravery, resilience, ingenuity and sacrifice by our forebears to overcome a common adversary. The Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery, here in Belgrade, is a constant reminder of the sac..

Skip to content Robin Barnett Ambassador to Ireland, Dublin 22nd September 2020 Dublin, Ireland Robin Barnett’s Final Blog as British Ambassador to IrelandThis is my last blog as Ambassador to Ireland. There are so many topics that I could cover but I wanted to focus on just 3 that are personal to me: GAA Before coming to Ireland, I had not appreciated the significance of the GAA but I quickly got an introduction to football at the 2016 Dublin v Mayo game. This was to be the start of my education and over my four years here, I have come to love the passion of the sports that make up the GAA and to understand the history around it. During my time, we have been fortunate to have several Royal visitors and it has been fantastic to see them being introduced to the GAA and even trying their hand at hurling and football. One of the last events before lockdown was the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Galway, where they thoroughly enjoyed their time being coached by their junior..

Skip to content Sian MacLeod UK Ambassador to Serbia Part of Digital Diplomacy FCDO Outreach UK in Serbia 21st September 2020 Belgrade, Serbia The Online Diplomat The Online DiplomatI was recently asked to open a conference on communications. Because of the public health situation the conference was held virtually, that is to say, online. It’s a dangerous thing to be an amateur opening a conference of professionals. To do so using their own medium was, to use typically British irony, ‘courageous’. I realised that I was probably in more need of advice from the experts than they were from me. But as the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Diplomacy, broadly speaking is about policy, people and places. A diplomat’s life and work is about presenting policy, meeting people and visiting places. That’s tricky just now. I wouldn’t go as far as a well-known commentator for Carnegie Europe who said that coronavirus had “brought diplomatic activity to a standstill”. But there is a qui..

Skip to content Leigh Turner Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna 17th September 2020 Vienna, Austria Why the British Embassy in Vienna is proud to be greenDiplomats from the British Embassy are off to an important meeting in Vienna. The Ringstrasse, as so often, is gridlocked. No problem for our diplomats, who hop on an embassy bike and arrive not only on time, but in style. Our British Embassy Vienna bikesOur embassy bikes mean that British diplomats in Vienna make many journeys by bike which would once have been by car. Result: zero emissions (apart, perhaps, from some panting). The bikes are just one of the measures we have taken to make the three British diplomatic missions in Austria greener. Our Embassy ‘green team’ are constantly looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint. Measures we have taken so far include: Banning single use plastics. This is harder than it sounds. The first..

Skip to content Leigh Turner Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna 7th September 2020 Vienna, Austria How Austria has – and hasn’t – changed‘You were a diplomat in Vienna in the ‘80s?’ My interlocutor scans me, perhaps wondering why I am still working, or alive. ‘It must have changed so much!’ ‘Well…’ I seek a diplomatic reply. ‘Yes and no.’ Oscar Wilde famously said “Comparisons are odious”. I often cite him when asked which of my diplomatic postings I have preferred out of Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul. But Vienna has evolved since 1984-87, when I served here as second secretary press and political. With exactly one year to go before I am due to conclude my posting as ambassador in Vienna, I thought I would have a go at highlighting five things that have changed since the ‘80s, and five things that haven’t: What hasn’t changed (i) Vienna used to be so grey and dull, didn’t it? Young Vi..

Skip to content Leigh Turner Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna 7th September 2020 Vienna, Austria How Austria has – and hasn’t – changed‘You were a diplomat in Vienna in the ‘80s?’ My interlocutor scans me, perhaps wondering why I am still working, or alive. ‘It must have changed so much!’ ‘Well…’ I seek a diplomatic reply. ‘Yes and no.’ Oscar Wilde famously said “Comparisons are odious”. I often cite him when asked which of my diplomatic postings I have preferred out of Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul. But Vienna has evolved since 1984-87, when I served here as second secretary press and political. With exactly one year to go before I am due to conclude my posting as ambassador in Vienna, I thought I would have a go at highlighting five things that have changed since the ‘80s, and five things that haven’t: What hasn’t changed (i) Vienna used to be so grey and dull, didn’t it? Young Vi..