Jeremy Astill-Brown

Former UK diplomat. Strategic planning for development programmes operating in complex and/or insecure settings. Views my own.

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@ChathamHouse @ButlerCreon But see here - literally the next thing in my Twitter feed today! https://t.co/8NwtA0oqVn

[Claas Mertens @ClaasMertens]

In this @ISQ_Jrnl article, I find that foreign aid suspensions are more effective than economic sanctions. Economic sanctions are less effective than previously thought, and donor states gain power through the ability to suspend aid. Here is WHY:

[THREAD]
https://t.co/9AslqIRX2g

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@Ianblackford_MP What? U2?

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@MikeNith1 Tip and Run: The Untold Tragedy of the First World War in Africa by Edward Paice.

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@omardaair @MadeleineFCDO @2wsphotography Try BE Addis Ababa. When I served there, specialist bird watching teams used to come to see birds which they claimed only lived on the compound.

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@LouisHenwood You have to hand it to the folk who designed the oder of service... Great chance to highlight the poisonous nature of the UK's asylum choices.

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@RoryStewartUK No so sure that I am concerned as much about a separate DFID as to the poor management of the reduced development budget. I don't actually have a problem with govt funded development supporting foreign policy. Just doing it crassly and thoughtlessly.

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

Peace Support Operations: Whose security and for what purpose? https://t.co/DrEne5TXrD

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@rfhaviland Not at all. But these people are both wrecking our society and the processes which under pin it too!

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@rfhaviland Is it not also concerning how much decision making took place in a small group and by WhatsApp? Where is the thoughtful but challenging policy process? Where is the record held now that people who made the choices can just delete their WhatsApp history?

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@dave_clay Just in from the Carthaginian delegation, a proposal to appoint a Special Rapporteur to investigate Roman “cultural genocide” through the imposition of sanitation, medicine, education, viniculture, public order, irrigation, roads, fresh water supply and public health.

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@dave_clay No reference to gender and the violated rights of women and girls affected by the conflict. The Responsibility to Protect? And are there any people trafficking risks?

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@rfhaviland @BylinesScotland R - great piece; resonates. I would be less conflicted with (a) knowledge that a yes vote = vote to join EU too; and (b) to hear a positive narrative about indy rather than lazy comparisons with (dire) Westminster today. Would be voting to "be" Scottish not just "not British".

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@dave_clay @CrispianWFCDO I try to avoid taking notes - it changes the tone of the meeting. But I build up and rehearse the story of the meeting in my head as we go, and try and write it down afterwards. (Makes for a more engaging record too.)

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@alexhallhall Demonstrating the extraordinary benefits of BREXIT and why the Tories should be entrusted with running the country for the foreseeable future.

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@dave_clay Nearly managed to persuade St Helena mail boat to let us take the vehicle as baggage and to sail home together. But failed at the last minute and had to fly home more conventionally.

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@dave_clay Took my mid-tour leave from Addis in 1994 by cashing in air ticket and driving to Kenya, TZ, Zambia, Namibia, round South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland; and back through Zimbabwe to Ethiopia. 18000km and 23 border crossings in six weeks. Land Rover.

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@dave_clay And then on departure in 1996, cashed in ticket and car allowance, drove to Cape Town and shipped vehicle back to the Uk in a container. Robin was my HMA - perhaps something rubbed off...

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@alexhallhall Forgive me. You say your proposals are radical. They are not - they are sensible when viewed through almost any prism other than that of a self-interested MP or a party manager not mostly motivated by public service!

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@Patrici89225734 International development, poverty reduction and international leadership on reducing exclusion. ( And as a result the UK is less safe and the target of trans-national crime, illegal and informal@migration, etc.)

[Jeremy Astill-Brown @AstillBrown]

@alexhallhall @BylineTimesPod @GoldbergRadio @BylineTimes I’ve always felt that there are, broadly, two types of diplomats. Buttering up and battering down. We often need both. Have always preferred to be the latter!