18th October 2019 Belgrade, Serbia
It’s a beautiful October day as I write. As I sit in my Belgrade garden I see clouds of newly hatched late ladybirds, the first yellow leaves shaken by a mild breeze, warm weak sunshine and distant haze. Around me the hum of urban life is punctuated by hammering and bursts of drilling from nearby […]
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 […]
11th July 2019 London, UK
Last year was the deadliest year on record for journalists. UNESCO records suggest that at least 99 journalists were killed, 348 imprisoned and 60 held hostage. That is why, this week, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has jointly hosted with the Canadian government a major international conference in London, putting media freedom at the forefront […]
19th March 2018 Skopje, North Macedonia
Goran Mihajlovski is one of the journalists in Macedonia that has followed closely the relations between the UK and Macedonia since their early days. As part of marking the 25 years of relationship we asked Goran to give us his experience of the early 1990s and the British-Macedonian links. Amb Garrett: How do you remember […]
12th January 2018 Vienna, Austria
I recently attended the annual diplomatic reception for ambassadors given by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen. Result: a minor social media storm. Why? And why was this a good thing? The President’s annual diplomatic reception has taken place for years; someone recently sent me a picture of Kaiser Franz Josef meeting the diplomatic corps […]
30th March 2017 London, UK
Last year, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs brought together an interesting bunch of people from around the world, and me, to discuss digital diplomacy. I found myself speaking second on a panel. The first speaker announced the publication of the Digital Diplomacy Review 2016, ranking foreign ministries around the world. The United Kingdom was top. […]
27th March 2017 London, UK
‘Blog first appeared on The State of Digital Diplomacy 2016‘ Alison Daniels & FCO Digital Team “Diplomacy is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip (103 characters).” The famous quote by Churchill is not just pithy aside it’s also an almost perfectly […]
1st February 2017 London, UK
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is always front and centre of the UK government’s response to an overseas crisis. They’re always high pressure events and lives are often on the line. Depending on the scale there’s a whole set of processes and teams that swing into action, all centred around our Crisis Management Department (CMD), […]
19th January 2017 Austria, Vienna
A photographer is on his knees, stealthily taking pictures of Ambassador Leigh Turner from behind a Christmas tree. Another stands in the corner, facing the wall. Unnoticed by the other guests, she points her camera at the ceiling and triggers the shutter. Has the Ambassador’s residence in Vienna been infiltrated by foreign agents? Not quite. […]
19th January 2017 Vienna, Austria
Which leading Austrian Instagramer features photographs of a figure in a yellow sou’wester? I was pleased to welcome to the Embassy recently a group of mostly young Austrians with leading accounts on the social media, like Instagram. In instagramese, this would read: Great to welcome @igersvienna to #BritishEmbassy #grambassador. One of the challenges of social […]