Carnets diplomatiques

“We think you’ve seen it all in administrative positions. It would be a good idea for you to move on to policy now.” This call from the human resources directorate left me thinking.

While the United Nations Security Council sometimes remains openly, France and Britain present a united front on almost all issues dealt with by this body. As the only European countries to have a permanent seat on the Security Council, the United Kingdom and France, both medium-sized powers with a global outlook, share a common vision of the Council’s role, as the diplomats at France’s Permanent Mission to the UN know from their day-to-day experience.

The theme of gender and development raises a number of key issues concerning the status of women in developing countries. I have had the opportunity to reflect on this since arriving at the Directorate-General of Global Affairs, Development and Partnerships, and in particular, during the discussions on this topic held at the OECD on 21 January 2013.

Interested in a little trip through time? We had a go, using an application that juxtaposes two photos taken at different periods. Let’s have a look behind the scenes of this project, which links images from the past and the present. With unprecedented photos…

A few days ago, I was contacted by a journalist who was preparing an article on Embassies located in "high-risk" countries and who wanted to substantiate her story with a true account of life in such circumstances. As her title, she used a sentence which I had uttered: “Being in Kabul is like living in a submarine”. How could that image of a submarine have crossed my mind?