1Introduction
1.Diplomacy requires a broad range of skills. The FCO needs to be able to draw on these to succeed in promoting the UK’s strategic interests. In addition to knowledge of regional politics, economics and culture, and proficiency in languages, these skills include: knowledge of multilateral bodies and international organisations; general diplomatic skills such as negotiating, political reporting, communicating and networking; experience of working in challenging local environments; specialist knowledge in policy areas such as economics, trade, sanctions and security; and digital and data proficiency.
2.The FCO also has a range of non-diplomatic responsibilities which can require different skills, such as programme management. In addition, the broader environment in which the FCO operates continues to change rapidly. This involves shifts in the international system, such as the evolving roles of China and Russia, as well as the impact of new technology on the practice of diplomacy. It also includes the implications of the UK’s exit from the European Union and the requirement to deliver on the Global Britain agenda. These developments could mean that the mixture of skills the FCO relies on in the future will need to change.
3.Diplomacy 20:20, the FCO’s current four-year programme of organisational reform, includes strands of work on “expertise” and “agility” which relate to skills. This has included the production of a Priority Skills Statement and a Skills Framework, the development of a Languages Strategy, and changes to how skills and expertise are considered in the promotion process. The FCO says that Diplomacy 20:20 was re-oriented to take into account the implications of the UK’s exit from the EU.1 Much of the FCO’s work on skills development is concentrated in the Diplomatic Academy, which was established in February 2015. The Academy has a range of faculties covering the main elements of the FCO’s work. A Trade Policy and Negotiations faculty was jointly established in 2016 with the Department for International Trade to support the Government in future trade negotiations after the UK exits the EU.
4.Predecessor Foreign Affairs Committees have expressed concern about a decline in specialist skills at the FCO, paying particular attention to shortfalls in knowledge of regions and languages, and concluding that past FCO reforms prioritised managerial expertise ahead of diplomatic skills, to the detriment of the FCO’s core foreign-policy functions.2 In this inquiry, we aimed also to consider the structures and processes by which FCO skills are developed and priorities are set, and the impact of corporate factors, including pay policy.3 The issues raised during our inquiry were wide-ranging, touching on nearly every area of the FCO’s work. We have not attempted in this brief report to cover all aspects of skills development and retention. Instead, drawing on the evidence we received,4 we have focused on three themes, each of which forms a chapter of this report:
a)The link between the role and purpose of the FCO, on the one hand, and the skills it regards as most important, on the other;
b)The ways in which the corporate structure and culture of the FCO affect the skills of its staff; and
c)Whether the FCO has the skills it will need for Global Britain, particularly in post-Brexit trade policy and European diplomacy, foreign languages, and other specialist skills.
1 Letter from Sir Simon McDonald to Crispin Blunt MP, 21 July 2016
2 See, for example, Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2010–12, The Role of the FCO in UK Government, HC (2010–12) 665, and Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2016–17, The United Kingdom’s relations with Russia, HC (2016–17) 120
3 The terms of reference for this inquiry were launched on 14 June 2018.
4 The FCO’s written submission to this inquiry, and its response to our follow-up letter, included substantial detail on the FCO’s work to date in the area of skills, much of it previously unpublished, providing an extensive evidence base. We are grateful to the foreign ministries of Canada, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Norway and Switzerland, for their answers to our survey on diplomatic skills. We would also like to thank all those who participated in this inquiry and provided valuable oral and written evidence.
Published: 28 November 2018