Articles

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On Her Majesty's Service - in a new way
  • calender icon August 25, 2015

  • user icon Matthew Teller, BBC News

The outgoing British ambassador to Lebanon hates the image of diplomats as stuck-up champagne-drinking mandarins, and goes out of his way to prove ...

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How to step down as an ambassador – with style
  • calender icon August 13, 2015

  • user icon Christopher Meyer, The Telegraph

That sound you hear is the massed ranks of long-departed British ambassadors turning in their graves. Some of us, alive but retired, have had to re ...

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Superheroes will survive this world in flux - interview with Nik Gowing
  • calender icon May 20, 2022

  • user icon Thinking the Unthinkable

Click here to listen to the interview in full.    Nik Gowing   Welcome to Talking about Thinking the Unthinkable, wh ...

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Britain's persuaders: soft power in a hard world by Helen Ramscar and Michael Clarke
  • calender icon May 9, 2022

  • user icon Book Review by Tom Fletcher - International Affairs, Chatham House, OUP

The authors of this comprehensive survey of the UK’s soft power may be ruing their timing. Who needs talk of a nation’s persuasiveness, ...

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The best books on navigating an unstable world - Tom's picks
  • calender icon April 18, 2022

  • user icon Shepherd - discover the best books

Who am I? I’m a recovering ambassador, now running an Oxford college. After almost 25 years in diplomacy, including working in no 10 for ...

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A safer, fairer world can happen if we teach our children how to build it
  • calender icon March 31, 2022

  • user icon Tom Fletcher, The New European

As Vladimir Putin doubles down on violence in Ukraine, it is no surprise that many despair at the state of global leadership, our collective inabil ...

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Book Review: 10 Survival Skills for a World in Flux
  • calender icon February 8, 2022

  • user icon Gavin Esler, The National

Tom Fletcher maintains realistic optimism in 'Ten Survival Skills for a World in Flux'   When I started working in the BBC&rsq ...