Charles Crawford (diplomat)

Last updated

Charles Graham Crawford CMG (born 1954) is a British former diplomat, non-practising barrister, communications consultant, and writer.

Contents

Charles Crawford at Danube Institute, Budapest Charles Crawford.jpg
Charles Crawford at Danube Institute, Budapest

Biography

Crawford was educated at St Albans School; St John's College, Oxford (BA); and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (MA). He also passed Part II Bar Exams to qualify as a barrister and is a member of Lincoln's Inn. He never practised as a barrister, instead joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1979. [1] His diplomatic career featured extensive policy work in London and at Post on the transition in central and eastern Europe from communism to democratic pluralism. He was appointed CMG in 1998 for his ambassadorial work in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Crawford speaks (to varying degree) Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, French and Afrikaans. He is married to Helen née Walsh and they have three children.

Career

During his FCO career he was known for an unconventional style. In Belgrade he borrowed two kangaroos from a local zoo for a commercial reception. He attracted local controversy in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Podgorica for his high-profile work in support of democratic forces and against ICTY war crimes suspects and organised crime. In 2003 he intervened on behalf of a large group of Newcastle United supporters, in Belgrade for a match against Partizan Belgrade; after the local police refused to let the fans leave their hotel, he invited them all to his Residence. [1]

He left Warsaw in September 2007 and the FCO at the end of 2007 to start a new private communications consultancy career. In 2009/2010 he was accepted on the Conservative Party candidates’ list but was not selected to campaign for a seat in the 2010 General Election. Since leaving the FCO in 2007 he has written articles on diplomacy and current affairs for Radio Free Europe , The Guardian , The Independent , The Daily Telegraph , National Review as well as Total Politics and Diplomat magazines.[ citation needed ]

In April 2010 after the Smolensk air disaster he appeared on BBC, CNN and Sky TV describing his personal memories of President Lech Kaczynski. He is a founder member of The Ambassador Partnership, a panel of former Ambassadors set up in 2010 offering corporate diplomacy services in consultancy, mediation and training. In 2010 he joined Specialist Speakers as a diplomatic adviser.[ citation needed ]

In 2016 and 2017 he won Cicero Awards for speechwriting.[ citation needed ]

Crawford has written for newspapers on current events, such as his piece on how the Helsinki Accords of 1975 impact the 2014 Crimean Crisis. [2] In an article published in the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs on the subject of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Crawford compared it to Middle Eastern peace processes; "If openly or by implication one party in a conflict is challenging the other party’s core legitimacy, if not its very right to exist, what scope is there for meaningful discussion and hard but honest compromise around a negotiating table?" [3]

Timeline

1979–80: FCO: Desk Officer for Indonesia
1980–81: Serbo-Croat language training
1981–84: British Embassy Belgrade
1984–85: FCO: Desk Officer for Air Services (notably UK/US Air Services)
1985–87: FCO: Speechwriter
1987–91: British Embassy Cape Town/Pretoria
1991–93: FCO: Soviet then Eastern Department (UK policy towards the Soviet Union, then Russia and CIS)
1993–96: British Embassy Moscow
1996–98: HM Ambassador to Sarajevo
1998–99: Mid-career development fellowship at Harvard University (Weatherhead Center for International Affairs)
1999–00: FCO: Deputy Political Director, then Director South-Eastern Europe
2001–03: HM Ambassador to Belgrade
2003–07: HM Ambassador to Warsaw
2007: Left FCO to start a private career

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivor Roberts (diplomat)</span> British diplomat

Sir Ivor Anthony Roberts is a retired British diplomat and the former President of Trinity College, Oxford. He was previously British Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Ireland, and Italy. He was knighted in 2000. In addition to his British citizenship, he is now an Irish citizen.

George Gordon Harvey Walden is an English journalist, former diplomat and former politician for the Conservative Party, who served as MP for Buckingham from 1983 to 1997 and Minister for Higher Education under Margaret Thatcher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Reddaway</span> British diplomat

Sir David Norman Reddaway is Chief Executive and Clerk of the Goldsmiths' Company in the City of London. He is a retired British diplomat who was High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Ireland and Turkey.

Richard Oliver Miles CMG was a British Ambassador and former chairman of the international business development company MEC International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Wright, Baron Wright of Richmond</span> British diplomat (1931–2020)

Patrick Richard Henry Wright, Baron Wright of Richmond, was a British diplomat who served as Head of HM Diplomatic Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Sheinwald</span>

Sir Nigel Elton Sheinwald is a former senior British diplomat, who served as Ambassador to the United States of America between October 2007 and January 2012. He was appointed "Special Envoy on intelligence and law enforcement data sharing" in September 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roderick W. Moore</span>

Roderick Wemple Moore is the former Raymond Spruance Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, RI, from 2013 to 2015. During the latter part of 2015, he served as the Chargé d'Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria. From 2010 to 2013, he was the Principal Deputy High Representative and Brcko District Supervisor at the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to beginning his assignment at OHR, Moore served for three years (2007–2010) as the first American Ambassador to Montenegro. He was nominated for that posting by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 29, 2007. Senator Barack Obama chaired the Senate confirmation hearing in June 2007 at which Ambassador-designate Moore testified. Then Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, R. Nicholas Burns, swore him in on September 12, 2007, in the Treaty Room of the State Department. He arrived in Montenegro and presented his credentials to Montenegrin President Filip Vujanović on September 18, 2007. He left post in August 2010.

Christopher William Long is a former British diplomat. Following his retirement in 1998, Long served as director of the Oxford University Foreign Service Programme from 1999 to 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roderic Lyne</span> British diplomat (born 1948)

Sir Roderic Michael John Lyne is a British former diplomat who served as British Ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2000 to 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Benjamin (diplomat)</span> British diplomat

Jon Benjamin is a British diplomat. He is currently the British Ambassador to Mexico

Sir Alan Ewen Donald was a British diplomat who was the United Kingdom ambassador to Indonesia and China.

Peter Laurence O'Keeffe was a British diplomat who was ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariot Leslie</span> British diplomat

Dame Alison Mariot Leslie,, known as Mariot Leslie, is a former British diplomat whose last post was Permanent Representative to NATO. When she was replaced at NATO it was announced that she would retire from the Diplomatic Service.

Stephen John Wordsworth LVO CMG is a former British diplomat, now executive director of the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sebastian Wood</span> British diplomat

Sir James Sebastian Lamin Wood,, usually known by his middle name Sebastian, is a British diplomat who was the Ambassador to China from 2010 to 2015, and Ambassador to Germany from 2015 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menna Rawlings</span> British diplomat

Dame Menna Frances Rawlings is a British diplomat serving as British Ambassador to France since 2021. Previously British High Commissioner to Australia from 2015 to 2019, she then served as Director General of Economic and Global Issues at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2019 to 2020.

Francis Raymond "Frank" Baker, is a British diplomat and civil servant who was Ambassador to Libya from February 2018 to April 2019. He was Ambassador to Kuwait from 2010 to 2014, and Ambassador to Iraq from 2014 to 2017.

Sir Philip Lloyd Thomas, KCVO, CMG is a retired British diplomat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Moore (diplomat)</span> British diplomat

Richard Peter Moore is a British civil servant, currently chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and formerly Director General for Political Affairs, at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and previously the British ambassador to Turkey. In 2020, Moore became the first member of the British intelligence agencies to use social media publicly.

Georgina Susan Butler is a retired British diplomat who served as British Ambassador to Costa Rica and to Nicaragua. She later joined the Conservatives and considered a political career.

References

  1. 1 2 "Our Man in Warsaw". Sunday Times. 11 December 2005. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
  2. telegraph.co.uk: "Vladimir Putin's illegal occupation of Crimea is an attempt to put Europe's borders up for grabs" (Crawford) 10 Mar 2014
  3. Crawford, Charles (16 December 2022). "The Russo–Ukrainian War: "Explanations Come to an End Somewhere"". Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. 0 (0): 1–9. doi:10.1080/23739770.2022.2154503. ISSN   2373-9770.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Bryan Hopkinson
Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Bosnia and Herzegovina
19961998
Succeeded by
Graham Hand
Preceded by
David Landsman
Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Serbia
20012003
Succeeded by
Sarah Price
Preceded by Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Poland
20032007
Succeeded by