Inside the Foreign Office

Episode
Ep1 - Keeping Power and Influence
Broadcast Info
2018 (59 mins)
Description
That is the priority task of Sir Simon Macdonald, the Permanent Secretary - the chief civil servant - in a Foreign Office headed, for the moment, by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Politicians may come and go, but civil servants remain. We follow the diplomats as they wrestle with a series of crises and challenges. At the United Nations in New York, as world leaders gather for the special General Assembly week, the UK team juggle tasks from the delicate matter of who sits where - and the protocol status of Ivanka Trump - at the Prime Minister’s session on Modern Slavery, to briefing Boris on what to say to his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov, as Russia continues to support the Assad regime in bombing Syria. At the UK Mission to the UN, this special week is coordinated by Harriet O’Brien and Senay Bulbul. They give the film-maker (Waldman) a spirited secret, night-time guided tour of the Security Council. Neither diplomat fits the mould of the traditional British stereotype: Senay is the daughter of Turkish immigrants, and as Harriet says, "I left state school at 16 - if you’d told my 16-year-old self that I’d be a diplomat based in New York, I’d have just...died!" Their colleague, diplomat-lawyer Ahila Sornarajah, is trying to get all 15 members of the Security Council to agree to a UK-proposed resolution to enable Daesh (Islamic State) fighters to be prosecuted anywhere in the world. A distinct touch of glamour is brought to the proceedings as Human Rights lawyer Amal Clooney works with Ahila and the British team... Their boss is UK Ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft. He has to host all the British ministers visiting this week - including the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister - as well as dealing with unpredicted events around the world. When the Rohinga refugee crisis suddenly erupts in Burma, sensitive, private diplomacy is needed to try to get the Burmese government to listen to the world’s outrage. He rapidly organises a discrete lunch meeting with all the major players - including Nikki Haley of the US, the Russians, the Chinese and Foreign Ministers from Burma’s neighbours - but persuading the Burmese themselves to turn up needs extra delicate diplomacy. As the ministers arrive in the next room, Boris Johnson is given a quick no-holds barred briefing by UK officials on how to deal with the Burmese delegation. Back in London, Dan Chugg is preparing for his first Ambassadorial post. He is about to become Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Burma. Sir Simon - the Sir Humphrey of the department, as in Margaret Thatcher’s favourite TV comedy ‘Yes, Minister’ - is, as Dan puts it, ‘The Boss’. Dan is summoned for a pep-talk on being an Ambassador - and they discuss how to deal with the delicate balance of power in Burma, with the Military on one side and Ang Sang Su Kyi on the other. As Sir Simon gnome-ishly says to him, ‘We await your advice. The ends don’t justify the means, but sometimes we have to be flexible about the means’. Dan Chugg arrives in Rangoon, moving in to the grand Colonial Residence. Her Majesty’s Ambassador - who before he joined the Foreign Office did a master’s degree in pop music (as he says, "it was called ethnomusicology, but it was pop music") - has brought his guitar. He checks it has survived the long journey by playing the piece on which he wrote his thesis: ‘Wonderwall’, by Oasis. The tensions in the UK’s relationship with Russia are clear. Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Ukraine, Judith Gough, is visiting the conflict zone in the East, by the Russian border. She speaks both Russian and Ukrainian, and engages with Ukrainian Soldiers who tell of looking into the eyes of their Russian opponents. Judith has a robust attitude to the Russians - which she shares with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister. She also has a no-nonsense approach to her domestic situation: "I’m not the lesbian Ambassador to anywhere: I’m the Ambassador, who happens to be gay and I also have green eyes and artificially blonde hair etc - and that is but one characteristic". She kisses her partner goodbye and takes her son off to school, and the four-year old poses a question that would be difficult for any mum to answer "How many countries are there in the whole world?" As the Skripal poisoning case brings Russia suddenly to the fore, the UK Mission to the UN gets into top diplomatic gear - and the team have to talk carefully about tactics. As acting Ambassador Jonathan Allen says "we have to be aware of who we are dealing with - The Russians - so we have been careful about how we have communicated. We have used systems and mechanisms we have to protect information". As Sir Simon talks about the 150 Russian diplomats then expelled around the world, he also reflects on the nature of diplomacy - "the art of making other people have your way" - and how the Foreign Office is at the centre of the British story.
Genre
International Development; Law; Government

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Inside the Foreign Office". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/232634 (Accessed 08 Jan 2025)