by Barbara Woodward | Jan 6, 2026 | Articles, International Perspectives, Leadership and Reflections, Sixth Edition
Barbara Woodward explains why the UN remains vital to the UK’s foreign policy On 10th January 1946, 51 nations gathered in London’s Methodist Hall for the first meeting of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. With the bombed-out buildings of post-war London... 
by Lucy Heywood | Oct 1, 2025 | A Day in the Life of…, Articles, Fifth Edition, International Perspectives
Lucy Heywood describes a day in the life of Victoria Harrison – and her “Ambassadog”, Otto Victoria Harrison, Britain’s first blind Ambassador, has been in post in Slovenia for just over a year. Her historic appointment in August 2024 was the culmination... 
by Lucy Smith | Jun 30, 2025 | Articles, Fourth Edition, International Perspectives, Policy Insights, The Budget Collection, The Top Articles of 2025
Lucy Smith, this year’s Heywood Fellow, says other countries may be leading the way Short-termism, blind spots, lack of planning by the British state. These are not new problems. In his 1946 essay In Front of Your Nose, George Orwell wrote of the widespread habit in... 
by Catriona Laing | Jun 11, 2025 | Articles, Fourth Edition, International Perspectives, Policy Insights
Catriona Laing describes how we can learn from the thinking and actions of Joseph Nye and Jeremy Heywood In an age when hard power seems to be in the ascendancy, soft power might feel like the diplomatic equivalent of handwritten letters – elegant but outdated. And... 
by Victor Dominello | May 27, 2025 | Articles, Data, Tech and Innovation, Delivery, Fourth Edition, International Perspectives
True digital transformation requires reimagining the citizen experience from scratch, argues Victor Dominello, CEO of the Future Government Institute and a former New South Wales Minister for Customer Service. Editor’s Note: Across the world, governments are... 
by Kathy Hall and Gus O'Donnell | Mar 31, 2025 | Articles, Data, Tech and Innovation, International Perspectives, The Top Articles of 2025, Third Edition
Gus O’Donnell and Kathy Hall review what the latest Blavatnik Index has to show us about comparative strengths and weaknesses Sir Chris Wormald, the new Cabinet Secretary, told Parliament earlier this year that great policymakers are “self-confident enough to...
