Charles Crawford (diplomat)


Charles Graham Crawford is a British former diplomat, non-practising barrister, communications consultant, and writer.
, Budapest

Biography

Crawford was educated at St Albans School; St John's College, Oxford ; and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He also passed Part II Bar Exams to qualify as a barrister and is a member of Lincoln's Inn. He never practised as a barrister, instead joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1979. His diplomatic career featured extensive policy work in London and at Post on the transition in central and eastern Europe from communism to democratic pluralism. He was appointed CMG in 1998 for his ambassadorial work in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Crawford speaks Polish, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, Russian, French, Afrikaans. He is married to Helen née Walsh and they have three children.

Career

During his FCO career he was known for an unconventional style. In Belgrade he borrowed two kangaroos from a local zoo for a commercial reception. He attracted local controversy in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Podgorica for his high-profile work in support of democratic forces and against ICTY war crimes suspects and organised crime. In 2003 he intervened on behalf of a large group of Newcastle United supporters, in Belgrade for a match against Partizan Belgrade; after the local police refused to let the fans leave their hotel, he invited them all to his Residence.
He left Warsaw in September 2007 and the FCO at the end of 2007 to start a new private communications consultancy career. In 2009/2010 he was accepted on the Conservative Party candidates’ list but was not selected to campaign for a seat in the 2010 General Election. Since leaving the FCO in 2007 he has written articles on diplomacy and current affairs for Radio Free Europe, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, National Review as well as Total Politics and Diplomat magazines.
In April 2010 after the Smolensk air disaster he appeared on BBC, CNN and Sky TV describing his personal memories of President Lech Kaczynski. He is a founder member of The Ambassador Partnership, a panel of former Ambassadors set up in 2010 offering corporate diplomacy services in consultancy, mediation and training. In 2010 he joined Specialist Speakers as a diplomatic adviser.
In 2016 and 2017 he won Cicero Awards for speechwriting.
Crawford has written for newspapers on current events, such as his piece on how the Helsinki Accords of 1975 impact the 2014 Crimean Crisis.

Timeline

1979–80: FCO: Desk Officer for Indonesia

1980–81: Serbo-Croat language training

1981–84: British Embassy Belgrade

1984–85: FCO: Desk Officer for Air Services

1985–87: FCO: Speechwriter

1987–91: British Embassy Cape Town/Pretoria

1991–93: FCO: Soviet then Eastern Department

1993–96: British Embassy Moscow

1996–98: HM Ambassador to Sarajevo

1998–99: Mid-career development fellowship at Harvard University

1999–00: FCO: Deputy Political Director, then Director South-Eastern Europe

2001–03: HM Ambassador to Belgrade

2003–07: HM Ambassador to Warsaw

2007: Left FCO to start a private career