Gill Bennett | |
---|---|
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Somerville College, Oxford |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Historian |
Sub-discipline | Diplomatic history,Political history |
Institutions | Foreign and Commonwealth Office |
Gillian Bennett is a British historian and civil servant,previously the Chief Historian of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1995 and 2005.
After graduating from Somerville College,University of Oxford in 1969, [1] Bennett began her career in the Foreign Office in 1972 as a research assistant in what was then called the Historical Branch. [2] She held a number of roles within the wider FCO,and in 1995 was appointed to the newly-created position of Chief Historian. [3] In this role,she edited the documentary history of British foreign policy since 1945,Documents on British Policy Overseas,and give historical advice to ministers and officials. [4]
In 1998,FCO historians were commissioned by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook to investigate the authenticity of the Zinoviev Letter, [5] and Bennett authored the report of their findings,concluding that the letter was a forgery though not likely to have been directly the work of MI6 officers. [6] [7] In researching the origins of the letter,Bennett had full access to British government sources,and also drew upon Russian archival records. [8] Bennett retired from the civil service in 2005,and was succeeded as chief historian by Patrick Salmon. [9]
Since 2005,Bennett has published three monographs,Churchill's Man of Mystery:Desmond Morton and the World of Intelligence (2006), [10] Six Moments of Crisis:Inside British Foreign Policy (2013), [11] [12] and The Zinoviev Letter:The Conspiracy that Never Dies (2018). [13] [14]
The diplomatic foreign relations of the United Kingdom are conducted by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, headed by the Foreign Secretary. The prime minister and numerous other agencies play a role in setting policy, and many institutions and businesses have a voice and a role.
The Zinoviev letter was a fake document published and sensationalized by the British Daily Mail newspaper four days before the general election of October 1924. The letter purported to be a directive from Grigory Zinoviev, the head of the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow, to the Communist Party of Great Britain, ordering it to engage in seditious activities. It claimed that the resumption of U.K. diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union under a Labour government would radicalise the British working class. The right-wing press depicted these falsified remarks as a grave foreign interference in and subversion of British politics, and as a result it offended some British voters, turning them against the Labour Party.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The FCO, itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office, was responsible for protecting and promoting British interests worldwide.
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, also referred to as the foreign secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, fourth in the ministerial ranking.
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British Liberal statesman and the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the First World War.
Craig John Murray is a British author, human rights campaigner, journalist, and former diplomat for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Ralph Follett Wigram CMG was a British government official in the Foreign Office. He helped raise the alarm about German rearmament under Hitler during the period prior to World War II.
Major Sir Desmond Morton was a British military officer and government official. Morton played an important role in organizing opposition to appeasement of Germany under Adolf Hitler during the period prior to World War II by providing intelligence information about German re-armament to Winston Churchill. At this time Churchill did not have any position in the government. In 1940 Morton was Churchill's personal assistant when he became prime minister.
George Gordon Harvey Walden is an English journalist, former diplomat and former politician for the Conservative Party, who served as Minister for Higher Education 1985–87.
Charles Graham Crawford is a British former diplomat, non-practising barrister, communications consultant, and writer.
Sir David Alexander Warren, KCMG is a British diplomat, serving as HM Ambassador to Japan in the period 2008–2012. He retired from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in January 2013, and served as chairman of The Japan Society in London from 2013 to 2019.
Nigel Marcus Baker is a British diplomat, who was formerly Ambassador to Bolivia and Ambassador to the Holy See. He was Head of the Latin America department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2016 to 2019, and in August 2020 took up his appointment as British Ambassador to Slovakia.
Dame Karen Elizabeth Pierce, is a British diplomat who is currently British Ambassador to the United States at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and was previously the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office migrated archives are sensitive and incriminating collections of documents from Britain's former colonial governments that were sent back to the UK on the eve of decolonisation for storage in the FCO archives to avoid their disclosure and subsequent embarrassment to Her Majesty's Government. A great many similar documents were not repatriated, but instead destroyed.
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky, was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. He was an Old Bolshevik and a close associate of Vladimir Lenin. During the 1920s, Zinoviev was one of the most influential figures in the Soviet leadership and the chairman of the Communist International.
Thomas Stuart Francis "Tom" Fletcher CMG is the Principal of Hertford College, Oxford. He was formerly a British diplomat, a writer, and a campaigner.
Simon Gerard McDonald, Baron McDonald of Salford, is a former British diplomat who was the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service until September 2020. Sir Simon was the last professional head of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office before the creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Harriet Lucy Frost, Baroness Frost, is a British diplomat, with expertise on African affairs.
The Diplomatic Academy of the United Kingdom was part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). It was renamed the International Academy following the merger of the FCO and the Department for International Development (DFID) in September 2020 to form the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Joanna Louise Roper, is a British diplomat serving as British Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.