UK/FCO

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Predecessor	•  Foreign and Commonwealth Office •  DFID
Parent organization	UK
Headquarters	FCDO Main Building, King Charles Street, London
Leader	Secretary of State for Foreign Commonwealth & Development Affairs
Subgroups	•  British Satellite News‎ •  Empire Marketing Board •  Engaging with the Islamic World •  Information Department •  Information Policy •  Information Research Department •  Islamic Media Unit •  London Correspondents Service •  London Press Service •  London Radio Service •  News Department •  Overseas Information Department •  Public Diplomacy Policy Department •  Public Diplomacy Board •  Public Diplomacy Department •  Public Diplomacy Group •  Public Diplomacy Strategy Board •  Wilton Park
Sponsor of	Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Integrity Initiative, International Commission of Jurists, European Leadership Network, Westminster Foundation For Democracy, Abt Associates, Article 19, European Stability Initiative, Anti-Slavery International, Reporters Without Borders, Global Disinformation Index, The Alphen Group
Subpage	•UK/FCO/Permanent Secretary •UK/FCO/Strategic Programme Fund
The UK government department dealing with foreign policy.

In September 2020 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and DFID were merged to form the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (UK/FCDO).

The challenge of 9/11

The Foreign Office has undergone a major review of it all its propaganda work 'using' as an internal report puts it 'the events of 11 September as a peg'. Following the US example the Foreign Office 're-branded' its propaganda work as 'public diplomacy in the late 1990s. The review of public diplomacy has brought together all Foreign Office activity in this area including the BBC World Service and the Cultural propaganda outfit the British Council. The review concluded that the government needed an 'overarching public diplomacy strategy' which would shape the 'core messages that we wish to put across to our target audiences.' To oversee this propaganda effort a strategy board was appointed.

Mark Leonard of the Foreign Policy Centre, a think tank set up by Blair and then foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, has written extensively on public diplomacy. His view on honesty and openness in communication is that neither should be an obstacle to government propaganda: 'If a message will engender distrust simply because it is coming from a foreign government then the government should hide that fact as much as possible'. One can guess how much this reflects official thinking by the fact that Leonard is now one of the members of the Public Diplomacy Strategy Board which oversees FCO propaganda.

The Foreign Office has a long history of covert and semi covert propaganda operations via the secret Information Research Department, closed down in 1978 and its successor the Information Department which continued the tradition of 'grey' propaganda in the production of briefings, news stories, radio and tv items which were planted in news outlets around the world. The Foreign Office was historically rather coy about the fact that these were produced by the British government. Today the tradition continues. Four 'grey' propaganda operations run by the FCO are the London Press Service, the London Radio Service, the London Television Service and the relatively new British Satellite News. These provide pro-British news and information free of charge and copyright to news organisations across the world there is little indication on the material itself that it is produced by the British government and it is then published in international media as if it was genuine news. The response to September 11 has been to step up such material and reshape the entire information apparatus with renewed emphasis on managing perceptions overseas.

A favoured tactic is to conduct trips for journalists. The Foreign Office departmental report brags about the success of one to Afghanistan in 2002. According to FCO propaganda official David Dearnley the journalists, from Islamic media were shown 'what Britain and the British-led forces were doing to help rebuild Afghanistan.' The journalists were also taken 'through some of the most devastated parts of the city to a recently refurbished school where many girls and young women were eagerly taking the opportunity to catch up on their education.' Little is shown of the truth of the situation in Afghanistan which by July 2003 was described as follows: 'More than 18 months after the collapse of the Taliban regime, there is a remarkable consensus among aid workers, NGOs and UN officials that the situation is deteriorating. There is a further point of consensus: that the deterioration is a direct consequence of "coalition" policy.' Instead, as the Foreign Office blushingly tells us: 'The journalists subsequently published many articles giving positive coverage of Britain’s work in Afghanistan'

The attack on Afghanistan in 2001 also occasioned the creation of a unit within the Foreign Office tasked specifically with dealing with the Islamic media such as Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV. It was made permanent in 2002. As the attack on Iraq loomed the rare UK media mentions of the unit painted it as a traditional example of plucky yet genteel British propaganda. The Head of the unit Gerard Russell is described as 'Britain's lone crusader' or as 'almost single-handedly responsible' for putting the British case in the Arab world. This picture fails to take account of the fact that the Islamic Media Unit which Russell heads, has eight staff and is tapped into the rest of the extensive apparatus of public diplomacy including work with the London Correspondents Unit which brings arranges visits to Britain for journalists from the Arab world and British Satellite News which beams slanted news coverage into the Middle East with both English and Arabic scripts. Russell says 'a lot of my job is demolishing myths' and countering the 'emotive enunciations of extreme views on Arab television'. Among the myths are the notion that US and UK imperialism are alive and well today. According to Russell: ' I have to be very careful when I talk about democracy that they understand this means power of the people, and not imposing western ways of life or undermining Arab identity'.

The strategy of the FCDO is to fundamentally misrepresent the British role as consisting of benevolence and a respect for human rights. UK 'public diplomacy' campaigns are not propaganda but the truth. The Public Diplomacy Strategy of the government is available on the web, but has caused no major headlines in the media. The 'core narrative' of the strategy includes maintaining that the UK is

principled and professional as shown in our:…

-reliability, straight dealing and trustworthiness in business and international affairs.

-Commitment to justice, human rights, the rule of law and international security.

This statement was written and posted on the Internet in May 2003 just after the attack on Iraq - in breach of international law and after the systematic deception about the threat from Iraq had started to unravel in the media. A clear illustration of the parallel universe inhabited by the UK government's propagandists.

Propaganda organisations

Organisational changes

The department of the Foreign Office engaged in propaganda and information control have gone through a number of iterations. The News Department was created in 1916 and is the longest surviving department, only abolished in 2002. It focused on dealing with the media directly. Also important have been a series of departments dealing with background briefing, the World service, the British council and covert propaganda operations. These have included the following: The Information Research Department created in 1947 and tasked as an anti-communist propaganda outfit. It was joined in the post war period by the Information Policy Department focused on 'supervising the work of UK Information Officers in posts around the world'. Working alongside from the late 1950s was the Information Executive Department (previously known as the Information Services Department) with responsibility for 'the complex practical problems of putting the agreed propaganda line across to foreign audiences'. In addition there was the Cultural Relations Department which performed the role of supervising the British Council.

Closing IRD

The organisation of propaganda changed with the closing of the IRD in 1978. Its replacement was called the Overseas Information Department which within a few years in the early 1980s became the Information Department.

The shift to 'Public Diplomacy'

It was not until after the election of the Blair government that significant changes occurred in the organisation of British propaganda. These were in train as part of the 'cool Britannia' hype of the late 1990s in concert with the Foreign Policy Centre's corporate funders. On 1 April 1998, the Blair government created Panel 2000, which was to examine British propaganda activities. It reccommended the creation of the Britain Abroad Task Force which was duly created by 2001. This was followed by the Wilton Review of March 2002 and then by Lord Carter of Coles Review of Public Diplomacy in 2004. Organisationally the Information Department ceased to be in 2001 with the creation of the Public Diplomacy Department by August of that year, which was then renamed the Public Diplomacy Policy Department by January 2003. The Public Diplomacy Strategy Board was also set up to direct public diplomacy activities following the Wilton Review. Following Lord Carter of Coles' Review of Public Diplomacy, which was delivered to the Foreign Secretary on 13 December 2005 the Public Diplomacy Board was set up in April 2006 along with the Public Diplomacy Partners Group. They are supported by the Public Diplomacy Group within the Foreign Office, which replaces the Public Diplomacy Policy Department.

The Public Diplomacy Strategy Board is an advisory committee designed to improve the cohesion, effectiveness and impact of Government efforts to promote the UK overseas. It subsumed the work of the Britain Abroad Task Force and held its first meeting on 28 October 2002 under the chairmanship of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Board is responsible for formulating a national public diplomacy strategy to support the UK's key overseas interests and objectives.

"Counter-Terrorism"

The FCO is a funder of "counter-terrorism".

Funding

The FCO has £400 million budget for 2008-2010 in relation to counter-terrorism.. The Department for International Development and British Council (under the control of the Foreign Office) are also involved in delivering projects overseas regarding the prevention of "terrorism" and prevention of violent extremism. On a domestic front, Counter-terrorism funding is being used “to counter extremists' false characterisation of the UK as being a place where Muslims are oppressed...[employing] language specialists…to explain British policies and the role of Muslims in British society, in print, visual and electronic media.”

The FCO provided £520,000 for an organisation called Deen International, which is currently using the money in a project called ‘I am the West’. The aim of this project is to ensure that target audiences in Pakistan have “constructive debate[s] on the compatibility of liberal and Muslim values and understand that “the West is not ‘anti-Islamic, British society is not ‘anti-Islam’ and Muslims are integrated” into British society fully.

Quilliam Foundation

The FCO has funded the Quilliam Foundation £138,890 from January 2009 till January 2010.

Ed Husain, co-Director of the Quilliam Foundation participated in the 'Projecting British Islam' project being run by the FCO from 7-11 July 2008. Ed Husain visited Cairo and Alexandria to counter the "extremist ideology and narrative" and promote "modern Islam".

See Also

• Wilton Review
• Panel 2000
• Britain Abroad Task Force
• Coalition Information Center
• Engaging with the Islamic World
• Strategic Programme Fund formerly Global Opportunities Fund
• SPF Counter Terrorism Programme

People

• Rex Leeper
• Nigel Sheinwald
• Stephen Tallents
• Geoffrey Tucker
• Robert Vansittart
• Rosemary Waugh

 

Office Holders on Wikispooks

Name	From	To
Julian Amery	5 November 1972	4 March 1974
David Carter	1970	2005

 

A Document by UK/FCO

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:Iraq-Legal Background	legal document	19 June 2005	Downing Street memo Iraq War 2003	One of a collection of related leaked documents, this legal advice was appended as Annex A to the Cabinet Office briefing paper on Iraq of July 21, 2002. It was originally written in March 2002

 

Employees on Wikispooks

Employee	Job	Appointed	End	Description
Laurie Bristow	Director, Intelligence and National Security	2012	2015
Laurie Bristow	Director, Eastern Europe and Central Asia	2012	2012
David Claydon	Economic Advisor to The Foreign Secretary	February 2008	May 2012	While he was working for UBS Securities
Cressida Dick	Director General	January 2015	April 2017
Thomas Drew	Director of Intelligence and National Security	2011	2013
William Ehrman	Director-General, Defence and Intelligence of the Foreign Office	2002	2004
Nigel Gould-Davies	Senior Research Analyst	2000	2003
Nigel Gould-Davies	Strategy Unit Project Director	2009	2010
Robert Hannigan	Director-General of Defence and Intelligence	1 March 2010	May 2014
Amil Khan	Advisor to the Syrian Opposition Coalition	February 2013	May 2014
Rowan Laxton	Foreign and Commonwealth Office	1993
Mariot Leslie	Director, Defence and Strategic Threats and Counter-Terrorism Envoy	2006	2007
Mariot Leslie	Director General Defence and Intelligence	2007	2010
Giles Lever	UK/FCO/Counter-Terrorism Strategy Developer	2009	2009
Emyr Jones Parry	FCO Political Director	July 1998	August 2001
Karen Pierce	Foreign & Commonwealth Office/Chief Operating Officer	2016	2017
Karen Pierce	Foreign & Commonwealth Office/Director-General (Political)	2017	2018
Elaine Birch Ruffell	Senior Investigative Officer	December 1991	June 2001	"Responsible for identifying & containing threats to sources, staff & operations; and assessment of security clearances"
Elaine Birch Ruffell	Senior Operational Officer & Analyst	June 2001	July 2003	"Led assessment & disruption of narcotic trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe."
Elaine Birch Ruffell	Head of Staff Development & Training	July 2003	May 2006
Malcolm Russell	CPA	2003	2004
Jonathan Sinclair	Human Resources Director	October 2018

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Exclusive: I Can Reveal the Legal Advice on Drone Strikes, and How the Establishment Works	article	9 September 2015	Craig Murray	Craig Murray reveals how Sir Daniel Bethlehem continues to bring a Zionist perspective to any legal advice emanating from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

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