Tag: digital diplomacy

19th March 2018 Skopje, North Macedonia

UK pulled Macedonia out of Brussels’ hostage and moved it to New York

Foto: Gjorgji Lichovski

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 […]

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12th January 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Why we do social media

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 […]

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30th March 2017 London, UK

Hugh Elliott

Director of Communication

Digital Diplomacy: are we the champions?

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. […]

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27th March 2017 London, UK

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by Jack Pearson

Senior Digital Communications Manager

Diplomacy – one tweet at a time

‘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 […]

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1st February 2017 London, UK

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by Steven Hardy

Social Media Manager

Digital in a crisis: the Gambia

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), […]

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19th January 2017 Austria, Vienna

Alex Hammond

Digital Communication Officer, BE Vienna

How and why we hosted an Instagram event

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. […]

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19th January 2017 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

The wonders of Instagram

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 […]

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17th August 2016 Skopje, North Macedonia

Charles Garrett

British Ambassador to Macedonia

London 2012 Revisited

For me, most of August and September will be one massive nostalgia trip. Seven years ago I packed my bags and left the Foreign Office to join the team organising London 2012.  I spent three years there on secondment as Head of International Relations.  And then from July to September we put on the best […]

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25th July 2016 London, UK

My first month at the DTU – Digital Transformation in a historic setting

DTU one month in. On my first day as Product Manager in the Digital Transformation Unit (DTU) at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) it rained, hard.   Having carefully selected a suit to wear, eager to give a good, professional first impression, I arrived looking like the proverbial drowned rat.  Soaked through, I may have […]

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9th June 2016 London, UK

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by Steven Hardy

Social Media Manager

Promoting Human Rights

As the Foreign Office’s Social Media Manager I spend much of my time distilling the intentionally nuanced and traditionally multilayered world of diplomacy into something engaging and consumable. Case in point: The Foreign Office’s (FCO) annual flagship Human Rights and Democracy Report comprises around 50 pages of expert analysis of the issues the world and […]

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