User:Moonraker/BSTE

Basil Stephen Talbot Eastwood CMG (born 4 March 1944) is a retired British diplomat.

Early life
Eastwood was educated at Eton College (from 1957 until 1962) and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied history, and, later, Arabic.

Career
Eastwood held posts in Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Germany, and Sudan, where he was posted as Head of Chancery in 1984. He was British Ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic from 1996 to 2000 and to the Swiss Confederation from 2001 to 2004.

In July 1998, while serving in Syria, Eastwood announced a courtesy visit to Damascus by HMS Marlborough and the supply ship RFA Fort Victoria. In a lengthy statement carried by Reuters, he said he hoped this would be the beginning of programmes of military co-operation between Syria and the United Kingdom.

In 1998 Eastwood co-founded Cecily's Fund, a charity that helps Zambian orphans by funding their education. He is currently the Chair of the charity's International Advisory Panel.

In November 1999, Eastwood arranged talks in Damascus between United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, US ambassador Ryan Crocker, Lord Levy, representing Tony Blair, and himself.

In 2004, Eastwood and Richard W. Murphy, a United States Assistant Secretary of State under the Reagan presidency, published a joint study which noted: "In the Arab Middle East, the awkward truth is that the most significant movements which enjoy popular support are those associated with political Islam". Their study called on the western powers to seek to engage with moderate islamists.

Honours

 * Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1999

Career
Schroeder joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1988. His first overseas posting was in 1989 as Third Secretary in Kinshasa, where he was promoted to Second Secretary. He returned to an FCO posting in 1992 and the next year went as Second Secretary to the United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations in New York City. Later postings were in Tehran, Berlin, and Bratislava.

In August 2003, while posted at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Schroeder was an active participant in an FCO campaign to remove Craig Murray as British ambassador in Uzbekistan, sending a minute to all members of staff in the embassy in Tashkent, "so they all knew exactly the hymn-sheet from which the office wished them to sing", as Murray later put it.

In 2005, Schroeder was appointed as Head of the FCO's Common Foreign and Security Policy Group, and in July 2006 was called on to give evidence to the House of Lords European Union Committee.

In 2011, Schroeder became Ambassador and Head of the United Kingdom's Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, based in Vienna, and then after serving briefly as head of mission in Slovakia was British Ambassador to Denmark from August 2016  to July 2020.

Interviewed in Copenhagen three months after the Brexit referendum, he said "...for me personally, the priority in my job is the maintenance and preservation of the security, welfare and livelihood of British nationals in Denmark". He made it clear that the United Kingdom would not invoke Article 50 before the end of 2016 and added "Never forget that the UK is leaving the EU, but we’re not leaving Europe. The importance of bi-lateral relationships... will just continue to grow."

In June 2017, Schroeder was involved in a dispute with the Danish Finance Minister Kristian Jensen at a conference on Brexit after Jensen said "There are two kinds of European nations. There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realized they are small nations" Schroeder responded that he saw no indications "of a diminished or diminishing power."

In 2021, Schroeder was appointed as Principal of the International Academy of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Early life
Born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, in 1964, Campbell was educated at the University of Reading, where she graduated B.A. (Hons) in German and French in 1986.

Career
Campbell was a Management Trainee in the Department of Employment from 1986 to 1989. In the United Kingdom's Civil Service she worked in the European Fast Stream Programme, 1990–1995, and took part in the USA International Visitors Leadership Program in 2006.

From January 2006 to December 2010, Campbell worked for the European Commission, spending three of those years as head of its South Asia Unit, responsible for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. She later felt that the most significant progress in the region had been in preparedness for natural disasters and in reconstruction.

In 2011, Campbell transferred to the European External Action Service (EEAS). After heading the policy co-ordination division of the EEAS, in March 2013 Campbell was appointed as the European Union's ambassador in Norway, replacing János Herman, a Hungarian who had represented the EU in Oslo since September 2009.

Speaking at the University of Bergen in April 2016, Campbell addressed the EU's relationship with Norway and its diplomatic focus, the Paris Agreement at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the EU's ambition to join the Arctic Council, the future of the EU’s relationship with NATO and of military operations outside the EU, and the effects of a potential Brexit.

On 28 June 2016, five days after the Brexit referendum, Campbell spoke at the University of Agder on the challenges and opportunities of EU Energy Policy.

By 2017, the EU Delegation in Oslo had a staff of twelve, most of whom were Norwegians. Its main business was organizing meetings with Norwegian politicians and NGOs to discuss policy on energy, civil protection, education, and research.

In May 2017, Campbell was reported to be nearing the end of her term of office in Norway and invited the International Forum of Oslo to visit the Delegation of the European Union.

At the resulting event on 29 May 2017, Campbell stated that the European Single Market was the central plank of EU cooperation, and that three non-members, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, had access to it through the European Economic Area agreement. The EEA countries could also take part in many EU programmes, including Erasmus+ exchanges. Norway was also an important provider of energy to the European Union. She had found Norway to be "a most congenial partner of the EU, sharing values and approaches to international problems in areas such as development aid, climate challenges and nuclear proliferation". She was asked about the future of the EU after Brexit and said there was "a broad debate within the EU as to which course to pursue".

Campbell then returned to the EEAS in Brussels. In 2020 she was Head of its Division for Horizontal Coordination and Protocol, and in that year joined the Bologna Institute for Policy Research to share her knowledge of career opportunities in the EU.