The annual diplomacy ball, a collaboration between 8 societies across LSE, KCL, UCL, SOAS, and Oxford, is an incredible night of networking and merriment for students interested in international affairs.

Held at De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms on March 2nd in central London, our guests enjoyed a three course meal with wine while mingling with our diplomats in attendance.

Keynote Speaker:

Mr George Cunningham, currently Chair of UK Liberal Democrats Abroad, and Co-Chair of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Policy Advisory Group on China. Mr Cunningham retired from the European External Action Service two years ago as its Strategic Advisor on Asia-Pacific Affairs. He served the EU for 30 years, including as Deputy EU Ambassador to Afghanistan, as well as postings in New Zealand, Cyprus and New York during the 9/11. In preparation for his diplomatic career, Mr Cunningham spent the first decade of his working life as a British Army officer, a marketing executive, a founder and director of an NGO educating young people about international affairs, and as a United Nations official in New York. In his youth, he walked Africa for over two years, to learn about different cultures and the challenges facing them, far from his home and his upbringing in London. It was the beginning of his “journey to Become a Diplomat”.

Diplomats

Mr. Nong Dam Tuan Lin: Vietnamese First Secretary (Political) and Private Assistant to the Ambassador at the Embassy of Vietnam since July 2021. Previously, Tuan Linh worked at the State Commission for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam and a post in the Embassy of Vietnam in Brazil from 2015 and 2018. Tuan Linh graduated from the Foreign Trade University of Vietnam with a bachelors degree in International Economics in 2005 and earned a masters degree in International Relations at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in 2020.

Mrs. Sonja Cirrotti: German Assistant Attache (Cultural), joined the German Foreign Office in January 1999. She has mostly worked with International Organisations: IMO in London, Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome, the UN in Geneva as well as in New York and at the Disarmament Conference in Geneva. Prior to joining the Foreign Office she worked in Germany and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) and spent some time in Spain (Barcelona).

Miss Rasha Haddad: 1st Secretary at the Embassy of Lebanon in London. She started her current posting in August 2019. In November 2017, Rasha introduced the Lebanese Gastrodiplomacy concept under the slogan “Tasty Lebanon” to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants (MoFAE) to promote Lebanon’s culture and economy through Lebanese cuisine and products. Rasha joined the Lebanese Foreign Service as a career diplomat in 2016. Before joining the diplomatic service 2016, Rasha worked with the UNDP on the regional project Anti-Corruption and Integrity in the Arab Countries (ACIAC).

H.E. Dr. Zalmai Rassoul: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary

Mrs. Mariana Plaza: Argentina - Head of Mission to the UK

Minister Gonzalo Ortiz de Zarate: Argentina - Deputy Consul General

Mrs. Dao Thi Hong: Vietnam - First Secretary (Education)

Mr. John Everard: UK - Former Ambassador to Uruguay, Belarus, and North Korea

Shaikha Alanood Ebrahim Al Khalifa: Bahrain - First Secretary

Mr. Ebarhim Al Shalaan: Bahrain - Councillor

Mr. Ali Almahmood: Bahrain - Councillor

Miss Hajer Ameen: Bahrain - Second Secretary

The London Diplomacy Ball is a fantastic opportunity for students, diplomats and other high-profile professionals in the field of international affairs to engage in insightful discussions over a three-course banquet dinner, followed by an afterparty at the venue. This event is open to LSE students who are members of either the Amnesty International Society, the Grimshaw Club, or the United Nations Society, and to members of our external partner societies at King's College London, University College London, and the University of Oxford.

Your ticket includes the following:

• Sparkling wine at the reception,

• A three-course meal,

• Half a bottle of wine,

• Complimentary tea, coffee, and petit fours,

• An unforgettable networking and social experience.

We can accommodate any dietary requirements, please inform us of these when you purchase your ticket, or ten days before the event at the latest.

Once our high-profile guest attendees are confirmed, you will be able to purchase an add-on for 5 pounds to secure a place at a table with one of them.

Please look for here more information on ticket purchase and realise times.

Professor Ikenberry is an international relations theorist and the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is one of the leading scholars of the theory of liberalism in international relations theory and is the author of books such as 'After Victory' and 'Liberal Leviathan'.

Members of the Oxford Diplomatic Society have been invited to attend regardless of Union membership. If you want to attend and are not a member of the Union, please sign up here.

Curious about the St Gallen Graduate Essay Competition? Want to win an all expenses paid trip to Switzerland? Well, then come along, and check out what the event is about here.

There will be a discussion about what to expect and what you have to gain, all together with meeting amazing new people of course.

Oxford University is honouring Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Louise Richardson’s tenure at Oxford with a newly endowed Chair focused on Global Security and based at the Blavatnik School of Government. The Dame Louise Richardson Chair in Global Security will enable the University more powerfully to bring together research across departments to contribute to global security policy.

To celebrate the new Chair, The Chancellor of the University of Oxford, The Rt Hon the Lord Patten of Barnes, CH will introduce a panel discussion with Professors Ngaire Woods, Dapo Akande and Ciaran Martin on the future of global security. A drinks reception will follow. 

More information can be found here, and don’t forget to register at the bottom of the page!

We have been invited by the International Relations society to join the Swiss Ambassador to the UK, Markus Leitner, to discuss Swiss innovation and technology in context of neutrality and Brexit, followed by a drinks reception. (See IRSs OxTalk)

When: November 15th, 5:30pm - 6:30pm.

Where: Oakeshott Room, Lincoln College, University of Oxford

Markus Leitner is the Swiss Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and at this event, he will focus on Swiss science, research, and innovation policy and how these shape Switzerland's role on the global stage. Specifically, there will be a structured questions session where we will also discuss topics on how Britain and Switzerland can strengthen ties in a post-Brexit world, the impact that the scrapping of the Swiss-EU framework agreement will have on scientific research and innovation, the role that Switzerland can play in the fight against climate change, and can Switzerland remain neutral despite engaging in research, development and export of military technology. There will also be an open Q&A.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception organised by Lincoln College, free for all attendees.

Sign up for a FREE ticket on our Eventbrite to ensure that you receive more information on this event.

World renowned Tom Fletcher CMG reflects on what it means to be a diplomat and his experience within the field.

There is no need to register, the event starts at 5.30 pm at Rewley House, Wellington Square. More information about Tom Fletcher can be found here

What are the new geopolitical dividing lines, and how can we ensure that we create more opportunity for more of those currently on the wrong side of globalisation and technological change? Can the international system, and national governments, keep pace? And are we ensuring that young people in the developing world are also gaining the skills they need to navigate this new terrain?

Attendees are to e-mail Chloe Mak, Executive Assistant to Lionel Tarassenko, President of Reuben College, to book a place at the lecture at president-pa@reuben.ox.ac.uk 

Join the Arab Society for a timely talk next week with Ana Diamond, addressing the current events in Iran. She is an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime's oppressive campaign, having personally experienced its brutality. Following the death of Mahsa Amini and the protests the ensued, she gave interviews and authored articles for several news outlets, including the BBC, CNN and AlJazeera.

Get updates about the event by following it here.

We would like present this exciting opportunity to our members! Teams of 3 to 5 undergraduate students are invited to compete in this challenge. All nationalities welcome, and no prior knowledge required - engineering majors as well as Shakespeare scholars. Teams will work with expert mentors in one of seven streams:

• Russia-Ukraine War

• Public Health

• Climate Change: Clean Energy

• Climate Change: Climate Security

• Artificial Intelligence

• Gender-Based Violence

• Terrorism

Each plan will consider what actions NATO should implement within the next 12 months. Panels of expert judges will evaluate the proposals and select one winner from each stream, who will receive $500 each. The winners will be announced at the conclusion of the Challenge and team solutions will be published by NATO.

This event is organized by the W&M Global Innovation Challenge and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with support from the Whole of Government Center of Excellence, Reves Center for International Studies, and the DisinfoLab.

How to register: Please click here for more information and registration

The Oxford China centre have invited us to a talk by Aaron Friedberg in the Kin-ku Cheng Lecture Theatre, focused on his new book “Getting China wrong“. A description of this book is found below, and more information about he author can be found here.

Getting China Wrong, Description:

The West’s strategy of engagement with China has failed. More than three decades of trade and investment with the advanced democracies have left that country far richer and stronger than it would otherwise have been.  But growth and development have not caused China’s rulers to relax their grip on political power, abandon their mercantilist economic policies, or accept the rules and norms of the existing international system.  To the contrary: China today is more repressive at home, more aggressive abroad, and more obviously intent on establishing itself as the world’s preponderant power than at any time since the death of Chairman Mao.  What went wrong?

Put simply, the democracies underestimated the resilience, resourcefulness, and ruthlessness of the Chinese Communist Party.  For far too long, the United States and its allies failed to take seriously the Party’s unwavering determination to crush opposition, build national power, and fulfill its ideological and geopolitical ambitions.  In this timely and powerfully argued study, Aaron Friedberg identifies the assumptions underpinning engagement, describes the counterstrategy that China’s Communist Party rulers devised in order to exploit the West’s openness while defeating its plans, and explains what the democracies must do now if they wish to preserve their prosperity, protect their security, and defend their common values.