Guidance
FCDO Historians: Online Publications
Updated 11 September 2018
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| Number | Type of Report | Report title | Bibliographic Details | Short Summary of Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HN 1 | Historical Note | Korea: Britain and the Korean War, 1950-51 | Historical Branch, LRD (June 1990/ revised January 1995) | Forty years after the outbreak of war in Korea on 25 June 1950, this History Note explores an early episode of post war Anglo-American cooperation against the backdrop of simmering Cold War hostilities. |
| HN 2 | Historical Note | The FCO: Policy, People and Places, 1782-1995 | Historical Branch, LRD (April 1991/ revised September 1999) | An outline history of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office - from the first mention of a King's Secretary for foreign affairs in 1253 to the present day development of its policies, people and buildings. |
| HN 3 | Historical Note | Locarno 1925: The Treaty, the Spirit and the Suite | Historical Branch, LRD (October 1991/ revised August 2000) | A history of the FCO's famed Locarno Suite and a brief outline of the key diplomatic events which gave rise to its name. |
| HN 4 | Historical Note | FCO Records: Policy, Practice and Posterity, 1782-1993 | Historical Branch, LRD (October 1991/ revised November 1993) | A guide outlining the history of both record creation and record keeping in the Foreign Office from 1782 to 1993. |
| HN 5 | Historical Note | FCO Library: Print, Paper and Publications, 1782-1993 | Historical Branch, LRD (March 1993) | A guide looking back at one of the Foreign Office's oldest departments and tracking the many changes it has seen in over two hundred years of activity. |
| HN 6 | Historical Note | Women in Diplomacy: The FCO, 1782-1999 | FCO Historians (May 1994/ revised May 1999) | This History Note explores the role of women in diplomacy, charting the gradual opening of opportunities to women in the foreign service from 1782 until the end of the twentieth century. |
| HN 7 | Historical Note | The Foreign Office and the Secret Vote, 1782-1909 | Historical Branch, LRD (September 1994) | Beginning with the Tudors and ending with the formation of the Secret Intelligence Service in 1909, this History Note plots the development and funding of British intelligence operations over the course of over 120 years. |
| HN 8 | Historical Note | FCO Library & Records, 1782-1995 | FCO Historians (June 1995) | this History Note looks at the personalities - as well as the publications - of the FCO's oldest department: the Library, once described as "the pivot on which the whole machinery of the Foreign Office turned". |
| HN 9 | Historical Note | IRD: Origins and Establishment of the Foreign Office Information Research Department, 1946-48 | FCO Historians (August 1995) | Established against the backdrop of the Cold War, this History Note looks at the origins of the Foreign Office Information Research Department (IRD) and its early strategies for combating Communist propaganda. |
| HN 10 | Historical Note | The Katyn Massacre: An SOE Perspective | FCO Historians (February 1996) | A study of the Katyn Massacre in 1943 as revealed by documents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - a covert organisation engaged in sabotage, subversion and propaganda on behalf of the Allied war effort during the Second World War. |
| HN 11 | Historical Note | Nazi Gold: Information from the British Archives | FCO Historians (September 1996, revised January 1997) | A two-part investigation into the question of Nazi gold: how it was originally looted, accumulated and hidden as well as the subsequent attempts to find, recover and return it. |
| HN 12 | Historical Note | Nazi Gold: Information from the British Archives: Part II | FCO Historians (May 1997) | A two-part investigation into the question of Nazi gold: how it was originally looted, accumulated and hidden as well as the subsequent attempts to find, recover and return it. |
| HN 13 | Historical Note | British Policy towards enemy property during and after the Second World War | FCO Historians (April 1998) | , This History Note series outlines British policy and attitudes towards enemy assets, seized under the provisions of the Trading with the Enemy Act 1939, both during and after the Second World War. |
| HN 14 | Historical Note | A most extraordinary and mysterious business: The Zinoviev Letter of 1924 | FCO Historians (February 1999) | Former FCO Chief Historian Gill Bennett draws on papers held by SIS, as well as those in the Foreign Office archives to take a step closer to the truth surrounding the 'Zinoviev Letter' of 1924 - examining its authenticity, notoriety and its impact on Anglo-Soviet relations. |
| HN 15 | Historical Note | The Permanent Under-Secretary of State: A Brief History of the Office and its Holders | FCO Historians (April 2002) | A brief chronological survey of the office of the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and its holders. |
| HN 17 | Historical Note | Slavery in Diplomacy: The Foreign Office and the Suppression of the Transatlantic Slave Trade | FCO Historians (History Note 17) | Recounts the story of the Foreign Office's Slave Trade Department - the Office's largest Department from the 1820s through to the 1840s. |
| HN 18 | Historical Note | Britain in NATO: The First Six Decades | FCO Historians (History Note 18) | Beginning with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington in 1949, this volume chronicles sixty years of NATO's remarkable achievements, its capacity to endure change, adapt to new security challenges and uphold the enduring values of freedom and democracy. |
| HN 19 | Historical Note | Homosexuality and the Foreign Office, 1967-1991 | FCO Historians (History Note 19) | Based on hitherto unseen archives, this publication investigates why and how the Foreign Office maintained an outright ban on gay men and lesbians working as British diplomats from 1967 until 1991 |
| HN 20 | Historical Note | Women and the Foreign Office, 1782-2018 | FCO Historians (History Note 20) | A revised and updated version of an earlier History Note, telling the story of women in British diplomacy from the foundation of the Foreign Office to the present day |
| OC 1 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.1: 'Valid Evidence' | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (November 1987) | Papers originally presented at the Seminar 'Valid Evidence' held in the FCO Library, Cornwall House on 6 November 1987 examining the production of the series Documents on British Policy Overseas.. |
| OC 2 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.2: Editing Diplomatic Documents | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (November 1989) | Papers presented at a seminar held in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 9 November 1989 outlining the principles and practice of editing official diplomatic documents. |
| OC 3 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.3: Germany rejoins the Club | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (November 1989) | Paperslooking back at the successes and failures of British occupation policies in Germany in the decade after the Second World War. |
| OC 4 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.4: Eastern Europe | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (April 1992) | Marking the publication of the Documents on British Policy Overseas volume on Eastern Europe 1945-6, these papers were presented at a seminar held in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 8 January 1992 and explore key issues faced by the region at a critical juncture in European history. |
| OC 5 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.5: Korea | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (April 1992) | A series of papers on British policy towards the Korean War, 1950-51, presented at a seminar in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 8 January 1992. |
| OC 6 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.6: Russia: Tsarism to Stalinism | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (May 1993) | From the territorial expansion of Imperial Russia to the emergence, consolidation and collapse of the Soviet system, a series of lectures looking at the making of twentieth-century Russia. |
| OC 7 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.7: Changes in British and Russian Records Policy | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (November 1993) | A collection of papers presented at a Records Policy Seminar held at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 15 June 1993. The seminar explored how foreign ministries balanced pressures for greater openness with the continuing need to safeguard sensitive information, particularly in the context of the early post-Cold War period. |
| OC 8 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.8: Diplomacy and Diplomatists in the 20th Century | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (August 1994) | A collection of essays onat the development of diplomacy in the 20th century - as well as a timely reminder of the basic diplomatic skills needed for the successful execution of foreign policy in a rapidly-changing world. |
| OC 9 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.9: DBPO Publishing Policy and Practice | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (January 1995) | This Occasional Paper looks at the evolution of the Documents on British Policy Overseas (DBPO) series and its becoming a vital part of the exchange of information between Government, the public and the wider academic community. |
| OC 10 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.10: United Kingdom, United Nations and Divided World 1946 | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (March 1995) | Looking back at the first full year of peace following the Second World War, these papers explore Britain's role and attitude towards the institutions that sought to transform wartime coalition into peacetime collaboration. |
| OC 11 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.11: 1945-1995 - Fifty Years of European Peace | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (October 1995) | Celebrating the longest period of unbroken peace in European history and commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of VE Day, distinguished military historian, Sir Michael Howard, delivered a lecture entitled "Fifty Years of European Peace." in 1995. |
| OC 12 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.12: Nationality and Nationalism in East-Central Europe since the 18th Century | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (February 1996) | A series of lectures from the autumn of 1994, on nationality and nationalism in east-central Europe since the eighteenth century. |
| OC 13 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.13: The Growth of Multilateral Diplomacy | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (May 1996) | Sir David Hannay examines the history of multilateral diplomacy in the late twentieth century in the 1996 FCO Annual History Lecture, delivered on the fiftieth anniversary of the first meetings, in London, of the General Assembly and Security Council of the United Nations. . |
| OC 14 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.14: Britishness and British Foreign Policy | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (September 1997) | Professor Keith Robbins considers what it means to be British and how this has underpinned British foreign policy. in the 1997FCO Annual History Lecture.. |
| OC 16 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.16: Journey to an Unknown Destination: The British Arrival in Brussels in 1973 | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (November 1999) | Lord Thomson of Monifieth considers the meaning and extent of the United Kingdom's commitment to the EU in the 1999 FCO's Annual History Lecture. |
| OC 17 | Occasional Papers | Occasional Papers No.17: Detente, Diplomacy and MBFR (1972-1976) | Foreign and Commonwealth Office (April 2002) | Inspired by the 2001 publication of Detente in Europe, 1972 - 1976 in the series Documents on British Policy Overseas, these papers chart Britain's role in the talks on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions in central Europe from 1972 to 1976; follow British reactions to changes in East/West relations in the aftermath of the Helsinki summit of 1975; and illuminate aspects of bilateral relations between Britain and the Soviet Union during this period. |
| BA 1 | Documents from the British Archive | Documents on Relations between Britain and Finland 1939-1956 | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians (November 2001) | Documents drawn from the records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office shedding light on how two democratic nations without obvious cause for enmity came to be opponents during the Second World War. They also highlight the problems Britain subsequently faced in dealing with a vulnerable neutral in an ideologically divided Europe. |
| BA 2 | Documents from the British Archive | Churchill and Stalin: Documents from the British Archives, 1940-53 | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians (March 2002) | A collection of primary documents looking back at the personal relationship between two very different political leaders who would eventually combine to help win the Second World War. |
| BA 3 | Documents from the British Archive | The Western Pacific Archive: Introduction to the Documents | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians (October 2002) | A brief introduction to the history of the Western Pacific High Commission, published by the FCO Historians to commemorate the transfer of the Western Pacific Archive from the United Kingdom to the University of Auckland, New Zealand on 9 October 2002.The archive chronicles a century's worth of life, times and government of the Western Pacific Islanders through records, photographs, maps and other memorabilia. |
| BA 4 | Documents from the British Archive | The Origins and Establishment of Anglo-Mongolian Relations 1962-64: Documents from the British Archives | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians (January 2003) | A series of documents marking the 40th anniversary of Anglo-Mongolian relations - a relationship which has continued to evolve and mature over the space of half a century. |
| BA 5 | Documents from the British Archive | Frank Foley: Documents from the British Archives | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians | Documents relating to the exploits of Frank Foley: a Passport Control Officer who helped hundreds of Jews escape Nazi Germany before the outbreak of World War Two. |
| BA 6 | Documents from the British Archive | The Records of the Permanent Under-Secretary's Department | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians (March 2005) | Documents exemplifying the intimate relationship between the Foreign Office and British Secret Intelligence from 1873 to 1939. |
| BA 7 | Documents from the British Archive | The Cicero Papers | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians (March 2005) | A look back at what the archives have to say about the most successful German spy of the Second World War: Ilyas Bazna - codenamed CICERO. |
| BA 8 | Documents from the British Archive | British Documents on the Potsdam Conference July 1945 | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians (May 2005) | Published on the 60th anniversary of the Potsdam Conference, this paper draws on documents from the British archives to illuminate the build-up to the final meeting of the Allied powers and their attempts to forge a comprehensive peace settlement at the end of the Second World War. |
| BA 9 | Documents from the British Archive | Operation Hullabaloo: Britain's role in Kissinger's nuclear diplomacy 1972-73 | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians (September 2006) | A selection of formerly 'Top Secret' documents, revealing the role and importance of British diplomacy in the drafting of the 1973 US/Soviet Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War - better known across Whitehall as Operation Hullabaloo. |
| OP 1 | Other Publications | Beyond the Call of Duty | Martin Gilbert (2008) | The story of the British diplomats who risked life and limb to help rescue members of the Jewish community from the clutches of Nazi Germany. |
| OP 2 | Other Publications | The Know How Fund: The Early Years | Keith Hamilton (Historians, Records and Historical Services, April 1997) | This paper examines the early years of the 'Know How Fund', Britain's bilateral technical assistance programme in post-communist central and eastern Europe. |
| OP 3 | Other Publications | The History of the Office of Chief Clerk | Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historians (September 2002) | An outline of the origin and evolution of one of the oldest titles in the history of the Foreign Office: the Chief Clerk. |
| OP 4 | Other Publications | British Policy on Iran 1974-78 | FCO Policy Paper | An historical document first commissioned in 1979, detailing the events leading up to - as well as the failure to forecast - the Islamic Revolution in Iran. |
| OP 5 | Other Publications | German Unification Witness Seminar | FCO Seminar (October 2009) | A high-level witness seminar held on 16 October 2009 launching the FCO Historians' volumes of Documents on British Policy Overseas on German Unification, 1989-1990 and Berlin in the Cold War, 1948-1990. |
| OP 6 | Other Publications | From World War to Cold War: the records of the Foreign Office Permanent Under-Secretary's Department, 1939-51 | FCO Historians (May 2013) | Marking the recent release of almost 500 intelligence-related records from September 1939 to 1951, this collection of essays helps lift the veil on the relationship between the Foreign Office and the British intelligence establishment and provides a unique insight into the secret world of intelligence and espionage during both the Second World War and early Cold War period. |
| OP 8 | Other Publications | Negotiating While Fighting: Peace Initiatives, British Policy and the Vietnam War | FCO Seminar (May 2012) | Transcript from a seminar - organised by the FCO Historians in conjunction with the University of Nottingham and LSE IDEAS Cold War Studies Programme - examining two peace initiatives during the Vietnam War: Marigold and Sunflower |
| OP 9 | Other Publications | Witness Seminar: The Role and Functions of the British High Commission in New Delhi | FCO Seminar (Nov 2011) | The first in a series of Witness Seminars produced by the Institute of Contemporary British History (ICBH), King's College London and sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the FCO looking at the role and functions of the British High Commission in New Delhi - told from the perspectives and testimonies of those who served there. |
| OP 10 | Other Publications | Witness Seminar: The Role and Functions of the British Embassy in Beijing | FCO Seminar (June 2012) | Second in a series of six Witness Seminars produced by the Institute of Contemporary British History (ICBH), King's College London and sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the FCO examining the role and functions of the British Embassy in Beijing - told from the perspectives and testimonies of those who served there. |
| OP 11 | Other Publications | Witness Seminar: Berlin, The Cold War and German Unification | FCO Seminar (2009) | 2009 Witness Seminar covering Britain's involvement with Berlin over a period of more than 40 years in addition to documenting official British reactions to the collapse of East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall. |
| OP 12 | Other Publications | Homosexuality and the Foreign Office, 1967-1991: Transcript | FCO Seminar (2016) | Transcript from the launch event of Homosexuality and the Foreign Office (HN 19), featuring contributions from John Major, Stephen Wall, James Southern, Fiona Graph, and Michael Cashman |
| OP 13 | Other Publications | Witness Seminar: The Role and Functions of the British High Commission in Canberra | FCO Seminar (2012) | Part of a series of six Witness Seminars produced by the Institute of Contemporary British History (ICBH), King's College London and sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the FCO examining the role and functions of the British High Commission in Canberra - told from the perspectives and testimonies of those who served there. |
| OP 14 | Other Publications | Witness Seminar: The Role and Functions of the British Embassy in Paris | FCO Seminar (2014) | Part of a series of six Witness Seminars produced by the Institute of Contemporary British History (ICBH), King's College London and sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the FCO examining the role and functions of the British Embassy in Paris - told from the perspectives and testimonies of those who served there. |
| OP 15 | Other Publications | Witness Seminar: The Role and Functions of the British High Commission in Pretoria | FCO Seminar (2013) | Part a series of six Witness Seminars produced by the Institute of Contemporary British History (ICBH), King's College London and sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the FCO examining the role and functions of the British High Commission in Pretoria - told from the perspectives and testimonies of those who served there. |