The New Mandarins: How British Foreign Policy Works

Theorizing Foreign Policy in a Globalized World

“…National public opinions are multifaceted and blurry as well, and we have endless examples of how political outcomes may run against them, but that does not stop them from acting as very real parts of any politician's equation. For makers of foreign policy, who deal in changing peoples' impressions of countries and of events, world opinion is of importance and it looms larger as space is compressed (for a particularly informative practitioner's view, see Dickie, 2004).…”

‘Building the Global Network?’ The Reform of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office under New Labour

“…New Labour shared some of these prejudices, but was driven too by the more positive conviction that government ought to reflect the demographics of ‘modern’ Britain. To those ends, Cook created the post of ‘gender diversity officer’ within the FCO—the first in any government department (Dickie 2004, 25)—and began a round of recruitment fairs to promote FCO careers to students from so-called ‘unconventional’ backgrounds (Theakston 2000, 119). In appointing Keith Vaz and Baroness Scotland to the ministry, Tony Blair also signalled an intention to scrutinise just how representative the FCO was and could be.…”

“…Within the FCO, pressure had been building since the early 1990s for a new organizational culture, especially with regard to career development and human resource management. In 1997 those behind this movement—the mainly Fast Stream ‘Young Turks’ in their thirties—saw an opportunity to push their agenda forward, while Robin Cook seems to have seen in this group a chance to advance his own objectives with allies within the organization (Dickie 2004, 11). Together with the then-Permanent Under-Secretary, Sir John Kerr, Cook allowed the ‘Young Turks’ to draw up a manifesto for reform.…”

“…Together with the then-Permanent Under-Secretary, Sir John Kerr, Cook allowed the ‘Young Turks’ to draw up a manifesto for reform. Their ‘Foresight’ report was published internally in 2000, but on Cook's orders was never released to the public (Dickie 2004, 15).…”

“…In particular, ‘Foresight’ argued that the FCO was poor at strategic thinking and planning, adaptation to change, utilizing information technology, and at managing the careers of staff. It was also critical of ministers, whom the ‘Young Turks’ thought were too aloof, vague in the setting of priorities and the direction of policy, and prone to take FCO staff and their work for granted (Dickie 2004, 14–19).…”