FCO 2020 ‘A different way of doing things’

by | Mar 5, 2008


I am sure Alex and/or David will post something about Miliband’s speech to the FCO leadership conference which happened yesterday. My advice – don’t get too carried away with the speech – it’s good and runs through a familiar set of themes, instead watch the video embedded into the speech.

Two things stand out. Miliband’s plea for a culture of creativity and challenge in the FCO and secondly, the need for the FCO to do the vision, strategy and the detail.

There is also a nice line about diplomacy no longer being solely about relations between governments but about governments and civil society.

Author

  • Charlie Edwards is Director of National Security and Resilience Studies at the Royal United Services Institute. Prior to RUSI he was a Research Leader at the RAND Corporation focusing on Defence and Security where he conducted research and analysis on a broad range of subject areas including: the evaluation and implementation of counter-violent extremism programmes in Europe and Africa, UK cyber strategy, European emergency management, and the role of the internet in the process of radicalisation. He has undertaken fieldwork in Iraq, Somalia, and the wider Horn of Africa region.


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